If you are anything like me, you have been visiting grocery stores to find the rare can of wet cat food that your cat is used to eating before the last can is off the shelf. Sometimes it takes trips to four different grocery stores before I strike gold—a can of pate that my finicky cat will eat.
Though my beer-guzzling days are pretty much over, others are having problems locating their canned Bud or Bud Light.
Checking the google machine this morning, I found out why. It appears we will be searching for cat food for at least a few more months. There are aluminum shortages and other supply chain issues disrupting production.
Canned dog food is also in short supply, though not as severe as the cat food shortage; usually, dog owners have a pet that will eat anything. They are not in the same boat as a cat owner that has to coax their little buddies to eat something. The result is that affordable wet cat food is in very short supply.
Yes, I will need to venture out once again and brave the Christmas crowds to find Octavia her favorite pate. She’s on her last can.
Shipping woes, other distribution issues and a shortage of the aluminum used for packaging has led to a shortfall of cat and dog food, especially canned wet food.
Clancy said she’s seeing the biggest impact of the shortage with cat food and brands that tend to be the most cost effective. This could force more families to turn to her organization, which distributes pet food through human food pantries.
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The Pet Food Institute, the national trade association representing many dog and cat food-makers, submitted public comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this summer raising concern with supply chain and manufacturing issues.
“As the entire food system faced incredible disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. pet food-makers were also forced to address new ingredient sourcing and transportation challenges,” Dana Brooks, president and CEO, said in the comments. “America’s dog and cat food-makers responded with resiliency and are hard at work making nutritionally balanced food for our pets, but (the Pet Food Institute) is asking the Biden administration to identify policy solutions that will help further strengthen all of American food and agriculture for the future.”
The last supply chain issue back in early winter is due to climate change. The GOP and particularly Greg Abbott have Texas in its own electrical grid that during the deep freeze failed. It was so dreadful that Senator Cruz had to flee the state and find refuge in Cancun. Texas processing plants were not able to reopen for months.
Reuters-Texas still isn’t ready if another freeze hits the state:
(Reuters) - The Texas electric grid could suffer a massive shortfall in generating capacity in a winter deep freeze, potentially triggering outages similar to those in February, according to a report on Thursday by an electric reliability authority.
The assessment by the North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC), a nonprofit regulatory authority, comes as Texas lawmakers and regulators continue to investigate ways to bolster the grid to avert a repeat of last winter's blackouts, which left 4.5 million customers without power in a deep freeze that killed more than 200 people.
Magnesium is necessary for the production of aluminum.
Matalco Inc., the largest US producer of aluminum billet, is warning customers it may curtail output and ration deliveries as soon as next year amid a magnesium shortage. Magnesium is used to harden aluminum alloys.
Difficult-to-source supplies of other raw materials and soaring natural gas prices are adding to the challenges, Matalco said in a letter to customers obtained by Bloomberg News.
Alcoa Corp., the largest U.S. maker of raw aluminum, also voiced concerns about magnesium scarcity and has been seeing so-called force majeure declarations by some suppliers. Force-majeure clauses are embedded in sales contracts to allow suppliers to suspend deliveries owing to circumstances outside of their control.
“In the last several weeks, magnesium availability has dried up and we have not been able to purchase our required Mg units for all of 2022,” Matalco said in the Oct. 13 letter. “The purpose of this note is to provide this advanced warning that, if the scarcity continues (and especially if it becomes worse), Matalco may need to curtail production in 2022, resulting in allocations to our customers.”
Matalco and Alcoa both noted that silicon also is in short supply. That shortage, sparked by production cuts in China, sent prices up 300% in less than two months. Aluminum billets can’t be produced without magnesium and silicon, which are essential hardeners for alloys.
China which produces much of the world’s magnesium, shut down plants to curb greenhouse gas emissions before the COP26 in Glasgow. They have recently reversed the directive; the climate always takes a back seat to consumption.