The food shortage in Western Australia could force cafes to pull a popular creamy pasta off the menu, as floods in South Australia have led to a shortfall of cream, cheese and bacon supplies.
Various products, including plant-based milks, ham and beef and pork sausages, have failed to cross the border as the mass flooding created supply distribution issues for WA and the Northern Territory.
The rain has left vital road and rail lines damaged and submerged in water.
According to Western Roads Federation’s chief executive, Cam Dumesny, about 80 per cent of WA’s land-based freight comes via rail.
SA authorities believe repairs to the rail track won’t be complete until mid February.
It means foods like bacon, ham, salami, cream and mozzarella cheese have failed to arrive in WA, creating the food shortage and leaving supermarket shelves bare.
National distributor NAFDA Foodservice’s deputy chairman, Damon Venoutsos, said the recent disruption to deliveries was worse than previous Covid-19-related interruptions.
He told the AFR cafes that served fettuccine carbonara would struggle to plate up the dish because they couldn't get enough cream, cheddar and bacon to make the sauce.
“You can order it with tomato sauce, maybe, or maybe some dried herbs,” Mr Venoutsos said.
Each week, NAFDA’s WA facility receives numerous food deliveries from the eastern states and supplies multiple cafes, bakeries and fast food outlets, as well as aged care homes and Perth’s Optus Stadium.
It comes as a McDonald’s restaurant in the NT reportedly “didn’t have any fries” with the food shortage also impacting the Top End.
Katherine’s Chamber of Commerce manager, Colin Abbott, made the startling claim that the Katherine restaurant was left without fries during service on Saturday.
“It seems to be a significant issue that if one railway or road is flooded, the whole Territory is basically isolated. How can we continue to grow if this keeps happening?” he told the ABC.
Grocery store shelves in the NT’s remote southern regions are expected to soon be rexjmtzywstocked as fresh and non-perishable food deliveries have again started arriving daily.
While a portion of the Stuart Highway – which connects Darwin with Port Augusta in SA – remains closed, major supermarkets have begun delivering fresh and pantry staples via Mount Isa in Queensland, with shipments coming from Brisbane.
A temporary alternate route for road trains is also being used to transport goods to the NT.
Authorities expect it would take some time to completely restock shelves, but NT Police southern region incident controller Superintendent Shaun Gill said there would be a “steady” supply.
He urged against panic buying and asked locals to be patient.
“We’ve been advised by the major suppliers to remote community stores in the southern region that they have either no or low stock of fresh produce, however, ample supplies of frozen meat and veggies, and good stocks of non-perishable foods,” Superintendent Gill said.
“As flooding conditions start to ease, they will start to see more products transported to remote areas.”
A Coles spokesperson said deliveries of meat, fresh produce and groceries arrived in its NT stores on Monday, but purchase limits would remain in place to meet customer demand.
“We’ve focused on delivering the core items that customers want and need, such as mince, poultry, fruit, vegetables, dairy and chilled products,” they said.
“We are using a variety of alternate routes through SA, NSW and QLD to get these items through to our NT stores.”
Woolworths sent additional trucks from its Adelaide, Townsville and Brisbane distribution centres to increase its chances of getting stock into the NT.
The company’s assistant territory manager, Elisha Moore, said it enabled its NT stores to receive deliveries of large volumes of fresh produce, meat, freezer products and essentials such as milk, bread and toilet paper over the weekend.
“We have more deliveries scheduled to arrive in a steady stream throughout the coming week,” she said.
“We thank our NT customers for their continued support and appreciate the understanding shown by these communities during such a challenging time.”
