Canned Corn Is Experiencing a Shortage At Grocery Stores Due to Early Stockpiling During The Pandemic
Canned corn is the latest grocery store item seeing somewhat of a shortage amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many other products, the pandemic has led to issues within the food supply chain, especially considering canned corn makes up the smallest portion of the United States corn crop.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the sweet corn used for canning is only harvested once a year, and each summer, the amount that is reaped has to last for months thereafter. This past spring when individuals were stock piling non-perishable food items with a long shelf life, many were picking up cans of sweet corn. The WSJ cited statistics from Nielsen that explained canned corn saw a 47 percent increase of sales compared to last year.
Brands like Del Monte and Green Giant tried to urge farmers to plant more corn in order to keep up with demand, but at that point the farmers already had their harvesting plans set in stone. The surge in demand was hard to keep up with considering the amount of canned corn on shelves was the typical amount and 2020 sales trends were that of a very atypical year.
Not only is the amount of corn available the reason it may be hard to find at grocery stores at the moment, but an issue with transporting the product has also arisen during the pandemic. The Wall Street Journal said trucking companies pared down some of their fleets, meaning there are less trucks available to transport grocery store items including canned corn to stores.
The canned corn shortage joins other recently hard to come by products like mason jars, aluminum cans, and pumpkin.
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