FILE - Tins of Purina 'Gourmet' Gold premium cat food sit on display. Pet owners may have a harder time than usual searching for their dog or cat’s favorite canned food and — you guessed it — the supply chain backlogs are still to blame.
In June 2021, the Pet Food Institute (PFI), which represents America’s dog and cat food and treat makers, sent public comments to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) which outlined supply chain and manufacturing woes impacting the industry. And these same issues continue to plague manufacturers and consumers even now in 2022, according to PFI. "As the entire food system faced incredible disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S.
pet food makers were also forced to address new ingredient sourcing and transportation challenges," said Dana Brooks, president and CEO of PFI. "America’s dog and cat food makers responded with resiliency and are hard at work making nutritionally balanced food for our pets, but PFI is asking the Biden administration to identify policy solutions that will help further strengthen all of American food and agriculture for the future." Even after COVID-19 cases started to decrease and businesses resumed operations as normal, ingredients such as chicken by-products and vegetable oils, which are used in many canned food items for pets, were hard to come by, according to PFI. "These ingredient shortages have not abated as the pandemic began receding.