Archived on 6/5/2022

Already stockpiling for Brexit?

Daniel

26 Jul '18

Sainsburys at 8.30 this evening on the way home from work. Has anyone else noticed that the shelves are being restocked less and less frequently?

I guess I should be grateful for the solitary burger!

James1P

26 Jul '18

This was the result of refrigeration breakdown today. Should be better tomorrow. Carbonated drinks and meat in general are in low supply supply and less shelf less due to the C02 shortages. All this before Brexit!

anon5422159

26 Jul '18

All - can we keep the main forum free from Brexit scaremongering / Brexit cheerleading, please.

Brexit discussion goes in @general_politics. Thanks.

Michael

26 Jul '18

It is possible that the stockpiling is for nothing more sinister than the zombie apocalypse.

I should point out that if CO2 runs out and i don’t get my cola then the zombie apocalypse may be closer than you think.

anon5422159

26 Jul '18

More on the CO2 shortage here (and since CO2 is used in meat processing, this is the cause of the meat shortage too):

Europe has been suffering a carbon-dioxide shortage—the “worst supply situation to hit the European carbon-dioxide (CO2) business in decades,” according the industry publication Gasworld .

The culprit? Ammonia fertilizer. And once you tug at the reason Europe is experiencing a carbon-dioxide shortage, you start to unravel the entangled supply chains of modern food production.

Factories can’t turn a profit on making pure carbon dioxide alone. Instead, the gas is made as a by-product of other chemicals, often ammonia fertilizer. That’s because the first step in manufacturing ammonia involves taking a hydrocarbon molecule like natural gas and splitting the “hydro” from the “carbon”: The hydrogen gets turned into ammonia (NH3) for fertilizer. The carbon gets turned into carbon dioxide (CO2), which is captured, purified, and liquified for all sorts of uses. In addition to the aforementioned foods, this CO2 also ends up used in packaged salad greens, soft drinks, coffee, and industrial processes like “enhanced oil recovery” in oil wells.

Ammonia production plants operate on a regular schedule governed by the planting season. Farmers typically don’t apply fertilizer in the summer, so many plants shut down for periods of maintenance in April, May, and June. But this year, higher natural-gas prices have pushed production costs up while the price of ammonia has stayed static, so plants have been in no hurry to reopen. Plus, a heat wave and the World Cup have increased demand for soft drinks and beer. “You’ve got a real perfect storm of supply-chain conditions,” says Rob Cockerill, the global managing editor of Gasworld .