Posted on 04/05/2011 8:48:26 PM PDT by blam
Freeze Dried Food Distributor: Six Month Wait Time Amid Extreme Shortages
Author: Mac Slavo
April 5th, 2011
If there was ever a sentiment indicator for economic uncertainty and fear, this would be it.
As of April 2011, major distributors of freeze dried food, namely the Mountain House brand, are indicating that shoppers should expect delays of nearly six months on any orders placed today:
***CURRENT INVENTORY UPDATE AS OF 04/05/11*** All Mountain House & Nitro-Pak food storage #10 cans are in EXTREMELY HIGH DEMAND due to national & world current economic uncertainty and inflation fears. With this increase in demand, our food order processing times have greatly increased also. As Mountain House’s leading distributor, we are receiving HUGE shipments WEEKLY to fill our customer orders, but demand exceeds the available supply. Most Mountain House dealers have been been cut off & receive no food, period. Supplies are VERY SCARCE. Like Disneyland, the line is long but still slowly moving. Please be patient. This is a line you do not want to get out of!
…
All canned food orders and units may take up to 160 days to ship. Thank you for your business!
Source: Nitro-Pak
Other large distributors we contacted indicated similar shipping delays, with many simply marking their freeze dried food inventory as completely “out of stock.”
Mountain House has advised they are expanding their production facilities, but this upgrade will not be completed until the third of fourth quarter of 2011.
When we first covered the shortages of freeze dried food in December of 2010, a spokesperson for Mountain House, the largest freeze dried food manufacturer in the world, indicated that they were estimating the shortage to abate by February or March of 2011. In February, we received an update from Mountain House, which further pushed out the availability date to the Summer of 2011, and feedback from the largest freeze dried food distributors indicated shipping delays of 30 – 60 days. This most recent alert suggests that while freeze dried food manufacturers are working round the clock, demand for emergency supplies continues to sky rocket at an unmanageable pace.
Economic uncertainty, fear of inflation, government policies, natural disasters and the mysteries surrounding the 2012 doomsday date have been cited as the primary reasons for the parabolic spike in demand over the course of the last six months.
Because there will likely be no relief for any of those fears in the near future, we suggest to our readers that demand will continue to increase well into 2012, and question whether the new facilities being built for freeze dried food production will be enough to offset demand. As more people come to the realization that things may not be exactly as they seem, further demand will likely flood the market going forward.
Due to the uncertainty in the freeze dried food market, those concerned with acquiring quality, long-term food storage should consider and act on other options.
As we’ve suggested previously, dehydrated foods and MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) are one option that remains available at major emergency food distributors. The other options would be to self-stock and package dry goods, like the 11 Emergency Food items that can last a lifetime, including wheat, rice and beans. Most have a shelf life of 20 – 30 years and provide a well balanced, nutritious diet in the event of an emergency, widespread disaster or protracted crisis.
There’s a potential opening for smaller businesses to get in on the freeze-dried market. Wonder how much the machinery costs?
YUP.
Do you have a geiger counter?
The reason Mountain House is on such a backorder is due to the “rush” 1$ billion order from the govt which Mountain is filling first. The govt says they are worried about increased chances of a terror attack on the US and they need to stock up. I feel sure all that food will be kept to feed us in a crisis and not the govt elite and their families. Yes I’m just sure of it.
Thanks for the ping!
Loved your dripping sarcasm . . .
however. with so many 100,000’s of viewers on FR . . . please keep in mind that a significant chunk of them will have missed the sarcasm 100% cluelessly.
Garden list ping possibility?
Ping to the Weekly gardening list
” Lets see if the gardeners are interested. “
This (admittedly amateur) gardener is doing ‘prepper gardening’ this year - expanded my garden plot to double last year, and putting in mostly root crops, ie. potatoes, turnips, beets, onions, etc.... Lots of high nutritive value, and easily storable, food for the winter.... ;)
They know the house of cards is coming down.
One thing you and your family need to plan for -
DO NOT GET STUCK IN A GOV’T “SHELTER”.
Oh, and BTW, all those food stores they’re buying?
Someone besides the elites will know where they are,
and word will get out.
Very expensive. In the $10K and on up range. Best to invest in a good pressure caner, a couple of hundred $ for a good one. Caned foods will not keep for 10+s of years like freezed dried and are good for up to a year or a little more. A good rotation and re-caning will do for most emergency food supply.
Citizens who are overtaxed, paying too much at the pump, and STILL employed. Prepping's the new cool, which is fine. I've been trying to get people into it for years. I just realized, nobody's given me that 'you're crazy' tolerant look for a while now.
I need to check at Academy Surplus and see if they have MRE type rations for sale. We had some other rations in the guard called TOTUM or TOTOM that were also good. Much better than the MRE types. They had cans instead of plastic wrapped stuff.
I have a food dehydrator at home and will use it this year. We used it several years ago and everything kept really well. Just add water or eat dry.
So do I, but there's that pesky 'electricity' thing. I guess I should pick up some wire screening to make a solar one.
FWIW: as cheap extreme backup, note that Costco et al have 50 lb bags of rice for ~$20. That’s enough basic filler and calories for an adult male for a month in a compact shelf-stable form. Not saying it will be pleasant or healthy, but it is easy to obtain now and will do in worst cases.
We are looking into a generator for backup electricity. I know getting fuel may not be easy. But just in case I can, I’ll have some food in the freezers.
I never thought about a solar method. I remember my parents drying fruit inside a screen porch when I was a kid.
Thanks, Red_D.
Last couple of years, we’ve dried & packaged & stored our ‘extra’ potatoes. Considering that we harvest 200-300 pounds a year for just 2 people, that’s a lot of ‘extra’. 5-10 pounds fit in a quart Zip-Lok bag, and then those are put into 1 gallon jars. Some are cut for cottage fries or scalloping; some ar grated for hash browns; and a few are cut as french fries.
This year, a lot of beans will also be dried, and stored the same way. If the harvest is good, apples will join the fun.
This is also why this year we are trying out oats, barley, wheat, rye, and lentils. If it works out, we’ll eat/store a bit; give a little to the chickens and rabbits; and save about 2-3 times of what did best as seed for next year. Should get a good amount of straw in any case.
At the price of MRE’s and freeze dried; and not reaally trusting of their souring, we’ll stick to preserving our own, and know what we’ve got.
Of course, for those without a ready source of fresh meat & eggs, that can be a whole different can of SpaghettiOs.
Besides giving the garden a lot of attention this year, I'm expanding my permacultures by planting more fruit trees, and adding new permanent raised beds for blackberries, blueberries, and asparagus. In addition to that I plan to put a good supply of dried beans, peas, potatoes, grains, powdered milk, etc. into long term storage pantry. I have the 5 gallon food grade buckets and lids. I recently bought a supply of mylar storage bags and oxygen remover packets. Next on my list is to buy bulk purchases of the dry goods, repackage them for long term storage. I also want to order some other LTS foods in #10 cans like whole eggs, butter powder, etc. I'd better light a fire under myself and get moving before I have to pay even higher prices coming down the pipeline.
Hurricane Katrina taught me a lot about trying to find fuel for a small generator. No power to gas stations meant no fuel available. It meant listening to the transister radio for reports of stations that had fuel and power to pump it. Which means you need fuel for your vehicle to get there and also get back and then enough left into the vehicle’s tank to get to the next station a few days later. Also they limited the number of gallons you could buy. And everybody else was also headed there. It was difficult.
Ya know....two years ago when everyone was panic buying ammunition, we were quietly putting up stores exactly like this. I went through Honeyville Food Products online and bought case lots of freeze-dried vegetables and fruit. It wasn’t cheap, but it shipped immediately and will keep for decades.
http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/?gclid=CNjI_5jfiKgCFRlPgwoda31rrQ
Give them a try. I constantly get e-mails from them on for specials and they have excellent products. I highly doubt that they are having any significant back order problems, at least none are apparent from looking at their site.
And if this isn’t the year to plant a garden, there never will be.
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