Producers pivot to meet demand of hungry consumers while grappling with production and delivery dilemmas by CCA Director of Communications Katie Roberti In the May 2020 issue of the California Cattleman, a few CCA members who sell meat directly to consumers shared how they expected COVID-19 could impact the way consumers purchase food. At the time of publication, the United States was only a few weeks into the coronavirus pandemic. While the initial surge of food piling and empty grocery isles had passed, many questions remained about how the pandemic might change the country’s food supply chain and consumers’ buying habits. “‘I’ve talked to several people who have invested in second freezers,” Julie Morris of Morris Grassfed Beef, San Juan Bautista said this time last year. The May 2020 story continued on to say, “A holdback for many consumers when it comes to buying a quarter or half a cow is a limited amount of storage space for meat. If people are buying second freezers, that may be an indication that people are changing their buying habits,” Morris said. A year later, ranchers are continuing to pivot to understand how the pandemic is changing the way some consumers purchase food and explore new options for selling directly to consumers. Freezer space, as Morris suggested last May, did continue to expand for some of her customers in 2020. As Morris Grassfed Beef focuses on selling quarters of beef, having a large amount of freezer space is necessary for their customers. But with real estate trends showing people moving out of cities or further away from downtown areas, freezers are something more consumers may have made room for within the last year. “That is something we will have to wait and see if it holds,” Morris said. “I do know that sales of single-family homes have shot up, and that means that people have more space…and it’s easier to buy more stuff.” After ordering beef earlier in 2020, a backorder on freezers did cause many of Morris’s customers a delay in being able to receive their beef in the summer. Fortunately, those orders were able to be held in cold storage until Julie and her husband, Joe, could deliver them upon hearing from customers that their new freezers had arrived and were ready to welcome their beef. The supply hiccup from last year aside, consumers having more available freezer space should be good for Morris’s business. In addition to experiencing the many firsts of living amid a pandemic, in 2020, Morris Grassfed Beef, also—for the first time in 29 years—decided to add shipping as an option for their beef to reach more consumers. Little did Morris know in January of 2020, when she set up their shipping platform 10 California Cattleman May 2021
and ordered a palette of boxes with lining to keep the beef frozen, that this decision would coincide with meeting consumer trends as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Morris said having made the decision to start shipping and ordering supplies before the impacts of coronavirus hit was “serendipitous,” as food and grocery delivery sales became hugely popular last year during the pandemic. For 2021 orders, Morris Grassfed Beef will continue offering shipping based on the first year’s success. By adding shipping to their direct-to-consumer program, Morris says they have reached a different demographic of customers compared to deliveries only, which has been great for both their business and consumers. As demand for food delivery and shipping has increased since the pandemic, prices for shipping materials have also increased. Both boxes and dry ice used for shipping went up in cost because of the high demand. Morris said dry ice costs have increased because people are shipping more food and vaccines and because it has become valuable to have a constant dry ice supply. “These are all things you don’t necessarily think about when you plan a shipping program, but there are a lot of ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
Boxes of Morris Grassfed Beef being packaged for direct-to-consumer delivery.
