World Grain - March 2022 - 46

FEATURE: FEED INDUSTRY JUGGLES CHALLENGES
in that are raising costs on some of these products that
we can only get from overseas, " Cullman said.
COVID also added to growing shortages in the
workforce through a combination of resignations and
government support that made it possible for people
to not work. During a series of roundtables last year,
AFIA members said they were offering various incentives
to retain and attract workers as well as moving to
flexible work schedules, Cullman said.
" Flexibility has been the name of the game, " she said.
" We're seeing some that have changed start times and
taken other procedures to reduce exposure. They've
also instituted a lot of biosecurity measures to make
sure workers stay healthy. The industry is doing all it
can and we're continuing to urge the administration to
prioritize testing and some of the other COVID-19 resources
for the industry. "
The AFIA will take a deeper dive this year to understand
the overall picture of workforce challenges for
members, Cullman said.
" We'll be seeing if there are some ways that we, as
AFIA
President
and CEO
Constance
Cullman.
Trucking also is impacted in terms of local delivery
and cross-country transit. The AFIA is working with the
government to make modifications to regulations that allow
for better recruitment of drivers, Cullman said.
" The other big supply chain issue we've been dealing
with is the intermittent disruption of supplies, "
she said. " When we have facilities that are overseas
go down or reduce staff due to COVID, that is very
challenging. While many of our ingredients are of US
origin, some of them can only be sourced outside of
the US. "
Several AFIA members have been concerned because
their ability to meet customers' schedules and
demands has suffered when they can't get the inputs
they need.
" A lot of them are the preferred supplier because of
their reliability and ability to deliver product when it's
needed, " Cullman said. " They have proactively reached
out to customers to try to work with them. Others who
are input suppliers have worked to make sure they've
supplied their customer base in a way that allows everyone
access to some of those products, rather than
sell all of their inventory to a company that may be
storing it. "
At the same time, trade disruptions from the last several
years have collided with the pandemic, exacerbating
some of the challenges.
" We're looking at some of the tariffs we have coming
46
an organization, can facilitate some solutions to not
having enough workers to get the job done, " she said.
" We were already headed into a workforce shortage
before COVID. We want to address some of those fundamentals
as well as mitigate the effects of COVID. "
One positive outcome from the COVID pandemic
was opening new opportunities for member advocacy
with legislators, Cullman said. The AFIA was able to
use digital technology to get more access.
" We had members participate in some advocacy
that we typically don't see because they don't come
into Washington, " she said. " We found some real opportunities
in being able to reach more people with
more information. "
New administration
In addition to navigating through COVID, the association
had to learn how to work with a new administration
in the last year. A key focus for President Biden
has been climate change, which has been integrated
throughout all of the government agencies.
" We have innovations that will allow us to be solution
providers, whether that's products that reduce emissions
in ruminant animals or something that improves the
health of animals, " Cullman said. " These innovations
that are in the pipeline struggle to get to market because
of the regulatory process. We're looking to demonstrate
the solutions we can provide if we have some help from
the administration in getting the products to market. "
Cullman said there haven't been any additional regulations
come into play, outside of Occupational Safety
and Health Administration viewing COVID as a workplace
incident, which is atypical for viruses. There
March 2022 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
Photo courtesy of AFIA
http://www.World-Grain.com
World Grain - March 2022

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