What is driving concern about Christmas consumer shortages

There are concerns COVID-19 protocols could lead to food shortages over the Christmas period.

While international supply chains have been disrupted throughout the pandemic, Tanya Barden, CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, said the issues may be more local this festive season.

“Our big concern is that as the economy reopens over the next couple of months, there is the potential for workers to go into isolation if they’re a close contact, even if they’re vaccinated, which could mean significant amounts of the workforce needing to isolate and therefore not be available to produce the food, let alone distribute it,” she explained on 3AW Drive.

“We are concerned that in the lead-up to Christmas period, when we’d normally be ramping up production, there is the potential for some shortages in some products.”

Ms Barden said she was hopeful the protocols would be more practical once vaccination targets were met.

“If you’re double vaccinated, if you’d had a negative test, and you’re not symptomatic, then you should be able to return back to work,” she said.

Press PLAY below to hear Tanya Barden explain

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