Photo: Glacier Media
Bill Zylmans is used to growing potatoes. The coronavirus crisis, however, has resulted in growing headaches for the owner of W&A Farms in Richmond.
“We had a two-week window there that ended about a week ago where we couldn’t find a truck if our life depended on it,” the lifelong farmer said.
Zylmans said his go-to trucking companies had been enlisted by big grocers to make long hauls south of the border to restock depleted store shelves.
But as hoarding has eased off over the past few weeks, a sense of stability has returned to food transportation, he said.
“Supplies have increased, and we’ve settled down, and we’re OK. But there’s still glitches along the way, and it’s not going to be a cakewalk.”
“There’s been some disruptions, we’ve seen some shortages here and there, but overall we have lots of food in B.C. It might take some tweaking of the supply chain to get it into the right distribution channels, but there’s no shortage of food,” BC Agricultural Council executive director Reg Ens said.
Meanwhile, trade across the two borders is continuing mostly unimpeded, according to Joy Nott, a partner at KPMG Canada’s trade and customs practice, and the former president of the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters Inc.
“Nobody wants to stop the economy from ticking,” she said. “We might have hiccups here or there, but I don’t think Canadians should be worried about food on the store shelves.”
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