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Empty shelves across the US due to omicron-related labour shortages, panic buying and rising freight costs

EMPTY shelves are being seen at major retailers across the United States due to soaring freight costs, high demand for groceries and Covid-related labour shortages, according to bosses.

Owyhee Produce chief executive Shay Myers blamed the shortages on an increase in transport costs, which he said have nearly tripled since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We typically will ship, east coast to west coast – we used to do it for about $7,000 (£5,118),” he said. “Today, it’s somewhere between $18,000 (£13,160) and $22,000 (£16,085).”

Sean Connolly, chief executive of Conagra Brands, which owns the Birds Eye brand of frozen vegetables, told investors last week that supplies from its US plants could be constrained for at least the next month due to omicron-related absences.

US retailers are now out of stock of roughly 12 per cent of food, beverages, household cleaning and personal hygiene products, compared to 7-10 per cent in regular times.

The problem is more acute with food items, with out-of-stock levels at 15 per cent, the Consumer Brands Association said.

Grocery distributor SpartanNash blamed panic-buying for shortages of supplies, in particular processed items such as breakfast cereals and soup.

More than 800,000 people have now died from coronavirus in the US, which has recorded 50 million confirmed cases.

By contrast, China, which has a zero-Covid policy, has recorded fewer than 5,000 deaths.

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