Growers, heed this supply chain advice from your vendors

Added on 20 October 2021

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Growers, heed this supply chain advice from your vendors

Horticulture supply chain issues are affecting not just controlled-environment growers, but suppliers and vendors as well. In fact, in Greenhouse Grower's 2021 State of the Industry, nearly 60% of the approximately 100 suppliers of plants, hard goods, growing media, crop protectants, and equipment who took the survey ranked supply chain disruptions as one of the top challenges they are facing along with their customers.

On a broad scale, several suppliers ranked supply chain concerns as one of the most significant trends affecting planning for 2022. The demand from growers for products is stronger than ever.

"Everyone wants to recover [from COVID-19 shutdowns] fast, so they are investing in future growth," said one respondent, while another said this demand is likely to remain strong for at least the next two years.

We also asked vendors "Were there any supply chain concerns your struggled with this year, or any you are anticipating next year?" The short answer was yes and yes, with a sampling of the responses below:

"Yes, container availability is still a big issue besides the hike in freight prices."
"There was quite a bit of trouble having enough seed for demand, and there was quite a bit of backlog in labs from our partners in Europe. We do see this as an issue for this coming year."
"Yes, ocean freight delays and difficulty getting trucks."
"Shipping cost is too expensive but there are not many local distributors."
"Huge container freight increases, which will create huge price increases."
"Our main problems continues to be the delivery of vegetative starter plant material to customers quickly, accurately, and with acceptable cost."
"Plastic and growing media have longer lead times than seen in the past."
"Significant increase in vegetable logistics costs."
"In most cases, we met demand for plants and seeds. Next year is hard to predict, so we are discussing with lots of customer, growers, and retailers to assess."
"We are experiencing severe supply chain issues with greatly extended lead times and product scarcity. We anticipate this will continue into 2022."
"Transportation availability and cost; availability of growing containers, growing mixes, and their cost."
"Last year, manufactures didn't have the supplies to pack. This year, they are fighting for materials to produce."

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