The national baby formula Shortage began after safety concerns forced
the shutdown of a major suppliers flagship plant that company Abbott
Labs has since reopened the plant, and the White House is trying
to alleviate supply chain logjams. But as Ali Rogan reports almost
nine months later, parents are still struggling to find some brands
of baby formula.
Statistics show that formula stocks are almost back to where they
were before the crisis began. But ask most parents of young Children
if they're now easily able to find their preferred brand, and you're
likely to get a mixed response. So how is it that baby formula needs
are still not being met here to discuss that is journalist Helena
bottom. Miller Even who runs the food fixed newsletter, Helena, You've
been tracking these numbers very closely, but you've also been doing
a lot of
Anecdotal research in stores, and we're not seeing this stocks on
the shelves match with the statistics seem to be bearing out. How
do you explain that discrepancy? It's one of the most confusing things
I've ever covered. So I mean, the good news is it's getting better.
We have enough formula to feed all of our babies. We have enough
calories. So the volume is there, so that's the good news.
But that said, as you mentioned, a lot of parents are still seeing
shelves that looked pretty bad. It is not hard to find barren shelves.
Even my local grocery store, which is about two miles from the capital
itself, has been maybe 50% stocked throughout this situation, So
I think when parents see an infant formula section that looks, you
know
Largely empty. It also encourages them to buy more. It's a normal
human response. And so I think and tell the formula sections look
better. We're going to see, you know, stress from parents and also
some over buying frankly. So what formula are we seeing on the shelves
and what formula isn't quite back to where it was prior to this crisis?
Right now, the I R I worldwide retail data, which is sort of the
gold standard that data shows that were 87% in stock right now, on
average.
Most parents would tell you they're not exactly experiencing that.
And that is because a lot of the variety has come down a lot. So
infant formula makers are actually making far fewer types of formula
to try to be more efficient to meet volumes and sort of meet this
disrupted moment we're in that kind of helps parents understand.
You know you're seeing way less variety, and you're not seeing as
much of the particular brand or type that you might be looking for,
And I think that makes it feel like a shortage, even though we have
enough right now a big contributor to the
Shortage was Abbott Labs, which controls about 40% of market share.
It closed its biggest facility in Sturgis, Michigan. That facility
reopened in July following the recall. How much did that affect?
Um, the shortages that we have been seeing. I think there's no question
that the massive recall in February made this situation very disrupted
and a lot worse. But I'm actually convinced that we would have had
some level of shortage even without that recall, because stocks were
starting to get off before that months before that, and so certainly,
though, if you shut down the largest, you know, manufacturing plant
for infant formula in the country. That plant was responsible for
about 20% of infant formula. Production is going to be really
Disruptive and the good news is we are back to producing more than
more infant formula than we were before that shutdown, But everyone
I've talked to is really surprised. This has gone on this long. If
you had asked me in May would store shelves still look disrupted
in the fall in the winter, I would have said Absolutely not. This
will get worked out. And so the fact that they still look quite bad
in many places is is shocking to a lot of people. Let's talk really
quick about the White House's actions here. They have taken a number
of them operation fly formula. They were
Lying in formula from overseas. They invoked the defense Production
Act. They opened up the market to some foreign manufacturers. How
have those things helped or not? Yeah, I think all of those things
have helped, you know, they put in a lot of new policies in place
as you mentioned, you know, get more imported formula on store shelves
before this crisis 98% of formula that we consumed in the U. S was
domestically produced. So if all of a sudden you, you know, knock
out a big part of your processing, it's not like we can seamlessly.
Bring it in from other countries, so we have made it easier to get
imports on the shelves.
Um, those formula flights have actually brought in almost 100 million
servings of formula So it's been, I think a significant impact but
again going back to the fact that we are eight months into this and
store shelves still look bad in many places, I think tells us that
more needs to be done. And we are not out of this yet. Bottom line.
Helena does anybody have an idea of when this is going to end and
things get truly back to normal?
I really don't know. Every time Biden administration official has
tried to predict when this is going to end they have been wrong and
it is still been an issue far past the deadline they have set so
I really don't know. I think you know best case scenario into next
year into early next year will still see some disruption, but hopefully
it will get better and better because this has been really stressful
for a lot of parents.
Helena bottom Miller Eve it who dominates the formula, beat and runs
the food fixed newsletter. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks