Australia is facing a rice and pasta shortage after panic-buyers left stocks completely depleted at supermarkets across the country.
Farmers are running out of durum wheat, the crop used to produce pasta, and say they need the remainder to plant a winter crop.
A combination of drought and panic-buying has also left supplies of rice worryingly low, according to the AFR.
Australia used to be self-sufficient in its production of rice but a devastating drought and a hike in water prices for irrigated agriculture has crippled the industry.
This, followed by panic buying, has exacerbated a shortage, according to the country’s biggest rice supplier SunRice.
An unprecedented demand for pasta, rice and mince meat has left supermarket shelves bare across the country
Coles has pleaded with customers to show respect and compassion when shopping for essentials and to support staff who are working hard to keep products on shelves
SunRice’s chief executive Rob Gordon admitted the surge in demand has ‘exceeded supply capability’ and the company is now seeking to obtain rice from overseas.
‘We are producing stock as quickly as possible from our rice processing and packing facilities in the Riverina. However, demand for products is currently exceeding supply capability.’ Mr Gordon said.
Australian pasta company San Remo issued a statement on its website assuring customers they are committed to ‘keeping pasta on everyone’s table’
Rice farmers have also been offered fixed-price contracts by the company to encourage the growth of commercial crops this year.
Last year’s harvest saw the second smallest on record in the Riverina, with 54,000 tonnes. The rice crop this year is expected to be smaller.
Australian pasta company San Remo issued a statement on its website saying it was experiencing a time of high demand, but assured customers it was committed to ‘keeping pasta on everyone’s table’.
‘Our teams are working around the clock to ensure a steady supply of high-quality pasta products are provided to our retail partners across the country,’ the company said.
‘The availability from store to store will fluctuate depending on local demand and regular stock levels for each retail store. Where possible, we suggest discussing with your local supermarkets’ store managers to understand when stock will be replenished.’
Barilla, another major pasta brand, has likewise been feeling the pressure from increased demand and has turned to its suppliers in Italy for additional stock.
Pictured: An empty toilet paper aisle at a Woolworths in Kellyville in north-western Sydney . Panic buyers are leading to Australian schools running out of hand sanitiser, the deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly said
The spike in demand has also impacted the already shortage-hit Sun Rice (left) which has been dealing with a decline production due to the drought. Barilla is also seeking supplies from overseas
City residents have been travelling to rural areas in Victoria and NSW to raid supermarkets for supplies after panic-buying stripped shelves bare
The beef industry has also seen supermarket orders soar to 25 tonnes a day – compared to its regular five tonnes – thanks to panic buying.
Beef mince is among the products that are under a two-item buying limit at Coles after stocks ran low thanks to panicked shoppers.
Patrick Hutchinson, the chief executive of the Australian Meat Industry Council said one of the business’s biggest priorities during this time was to keep supply chain moving.
‘We’ve got to keep this product moving through the system. It’s not like toilet paper. This is a long supply chain and it’s a supply chain based in rural and regional Australia. It underpins tens of thousands of jobs in rural and regional Australia and we’ve got to make sure it’s continually moving,’ he told The Australian.
Panic buying sparked by the spread of coronavirus has seen supermarkets stripped of toilet paper, pasta, rice, frozen food as well as tinned and other dried goods.
Farmers of durum wheat said most of their remaining supplies were for winter crops and the spike in demand has also impacted the already shortage-hit Sun Rice, which has been dealing with a decline production due to the drought
Coles were forced to introduce a limit on mince purchases after shelves were stripped bare at the weekend
The issue has caused stress and frustration amongst elderly shoppers, many of whom find it difficult to make frequent visits to supermarkets for essential goods.
The shortages have even seen city residents travelling into supermarkets in rural areas in search of goods.
In regional Victoria, residents from Kilmore, Traralgon, Wallan and Ararat slammed city ‘vultures’ for coming in by the ‘busload’ and emptying grocery store shelves.
Nervous shoppers are believed to be coming in from Melbourne and targeting stores for items that have been sold out in the city amid the panic-buying chaos.
Locals claim tourist have been coming in on buses, while some have been driving in, from as far as Mornington.
‘It’s happening all around here. It’s in Seymour, Wallan,’ Diane, from Kilmore, 60km north of Melbourne, told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell on Tuesday.
A Sydney woman took to Facebook to share an image of the line at her local Aldi in Miranda (pictured) before claiming the employee offended people by asking them to remain calm
Pictured: General view outside a Woolworths in Sunbury, Victoria as people wait outside on Tuesday
‘Someone came into our bakery yesterday and took every loaf of bread.’
In East Gippsland, which is recovering from a devastating bushfire season, is now dealing with toilet paper thefts.
Thieves have stolen rolls of toilet paper and hand soap from about 100 public toilets in the Victorian country region, amid panic over the spread of COVID-19.
Some dispensers have been damaged as well in the toilet paper heist.
East Gippsland Council Shire Mayor John White told AAP on Friday it was disappointing people would stoop to stealing loo roll and soap.
‘It’s just so ridiculous and sad that people react like this. People are pinching the toilet paper and the handwash too,’ he said.
‘It is very disappointing. But you can’t have surveillance at every toilet.’
Council is none the wiser as to who is on the move for the dunny paper, but Cr White doubts only one person is doing the rounds.
For a community hit by drought, then the summer’s bushfires and now the coronavirus, dunny roll and soap thefts come as another unwelcome blow.
Two women were charged over a recent incident over toilet roll at a Woolworths in Chullora in Sydney’s south-west
Supermarket shelves have been stripped bare by shoppers worried about having to self-isolate for two weeks because of the coronavirus (pictured is a Melbourne store on Monday)
Tourist panic-shopping appears to be taking hold in NSW as well, with some residents in Mudgee, northwest of Sydney, complaining over the lack of supplies due to city folks travelling in to bulk-buy.
‘People from Sydney [are] packing cars to the brims. Our supermarkets don’t get enough supplies only enough for our population let alone hoarders. It’s really sad and I think it needs to be policed from now,’ one angry resident said on Facebook.
‘Usually city folk hoard wine not milk!’
Peter Dutton said the government will come after possible crime syndicates who have been clearing supermarket shelves amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Supermarket giant Coles has added more essential items to its restricted purchasing list in an attempt to curve panic buying and make sure everyone has access
‘We do have some people I think that are profiteering,’ the Home Affairs Minister told 2GB’s Ray Hadley.
‘They’re hoarding, not for their own consumption, I think they’re either sending some of the products overseas or they’re selling it in a black market arrangement in Australia.
‘I’m going to come after those people. It won’t be a pretty experience when we deal with them.
‘We will come down like a ton of bricks on those individuals because I think they’re the ones that have created this pattern of behaviour of hoarding and clearing out shelves.’
In a newspaper advertisement, the grocery retailers also called for shoppers to stop attacks on staff and fellow customers after more people were filmed spouting verbal abuse.
Scott Morrison named the behaviour one of the most disappointing things he had ever seen.
‘There is no reason for people to be hoarding supplies from fear of a lockdown or anything like this,’ he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
The supermarkets say they’re doing everything they can to speed up the turnover of goods.