Virus-led school closures hit food suppliers
05 March, 2020
Government-requested nationwide school closures to fight the brand new coronavirus are triggering heavy harm to suppliers of ingredients for school lunches in the nation.
Sudden cancellations of school lunch-related orders for March are likely to force some companies to get rid of food already purchased for deliveries in the month.
School operators “are big customers to tiny companies in rural areas,” a butcher in the Tohoku region said.
The butcher said a municipal government suddenly canceled a ¥2-million deal for March. He has no idea how to proceed with the meat he already purchased.
Nagatoshi Milk of Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture, provides about 70% of the milk produced at the company for school lunches.
“We’ve been delivering some 120,000 bottles of milk per day for school lunches,” said Satoshi Hasegawa, head of the company.
“Expected sales of ¥65 million disappeared as orders for March got canceled,” said Hasegawa, 65.
A small the main produced raw milk could be converted to powdered skim milk and other products. However the remainder should be disposed of in the worst case, Hasegawa said.
The business is suspending factory businesses and having employees take regular paid leave for the present time. “I can’t observe how things will go from April,” he said, expressing his anxiety about the near future.
Even though many business operators are fighting the sudden school closures, some efforts to avoid food waste have been made.
Source: the-japan-news.com
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