He is not alone. This past summer, the shortage of ketchup in the country began to emerge, and the plot grew larger. How did it happen? It started with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that discourages the traditional service at restaurants and instead pandemic-friendly options such as delivery and pick-up.
Suddenly, restaurants pack coast-to-coast entrees, side dishes and cold drinks for a fixed number of people working in their cars from home. Those customers were expecting spices. These traditional restaurants therefore jumped into direct competition with fast food outlets, which also closed their dining rooms and increased their orders for tomato sauce packets.
Demand and prices rose, supply declined.
Heinz, the largest ketchup producer in the country, is at the center of the problem and is taking steps to address it. A few days ago, the company announced a 25% increase in production with a total of 12 billion ketchup packets … per year. ‘
“At the beginning of the pandemic, we made strategic manufacturing investments to keep pace with the increase in demand for ketchup packages, driven by the accelerated delivery and take-out trends; at the same time, we also tracked the future-oriented culinary and packaging innovations. , as well as further production expansion plan, ”said Steve Cornell, president of Kraft Heinz’s amplifiers, specialty and in-house business unit.
It’s a long way to go to say that the ketchup giant does not want anyone to come up empty handed when he gets a little taste as the pandemic fades.
He is committed to keeping up with the demand for ketchup, by sticking to as much as possible. With a laugh, he says, “I’m going to order now. No kidding. I have a hundred days.”