Pressure is mounting to solve the nation’s pallet shortage as Australia’s largest pallet producer says it may have to stop production, threatening the availability of food and drinks on supermarket shelves in the lead up to Christmas. Source: Timberbiz
The Age has reported that the supermarket sector is warning of empty shelves in the lead up to Christmas unless Victoria’s pallet-producing mills can continue production to feed into a national pallet logistics network that is already at breaking point.
Australian Forest Products Association Ross Hampton warned that “pallet-gate” is about to get a whole lot worse as Australia’s biggest hardwood pallet manufacturer in Dandenong, Pentarch, which makes 70,000 pallets a month and supplies all the major supermarkets, warns it will be forced to stop production as a result of environmental lawfare halting the supply of new logs.
“We are staring down the barrel of a food, drinks and other Christmas goods supply crisis because there won’t be enough timber pallets for transport. This is a major problem that demands immediate action, or some stock won’t get to consumers before Christmas,” Mr Hampton said.
Pentarch, which produces 70,000 pallets a month, is blaming court injunctions won by environmentalists that have put a stop to native logging in areas of East Gippsland, as well as the devastating bushfires of 2019 and 2020 for the shortage of timber that has already caused production at Dandenong South to be cut.
But Environment East Gippsland, one of the main groups taking cases to court against state logging company VicForests, dismissed as “rubbish” the claim that injunctions were responsible for timber shortages.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union says the state government’s decision to end all native logging in the Victoria by the end of the decade has also played a role in the dwindling timber supply.
The Pentarch Group has told The Age that it cut production by 35 per cent this week and has enough timber for just five days’ output.
“We’ve known for many weeks there is a timber pallet shortage in Australia. But the closure of forestry operations makes the situation much more serious. There will be a Christmas without some products on the shelves because pallet supplies will be so scarce. There will be no way to transport many sorts of goods,” Mr Hampton said.
CEO of VFPA Deb Kerr said court rulings are sending shockwaves right through Australia’s logistics supply chains at the most critical time of the year.
“It will affect everyone from product producers right through to retailers and consumers,” she said.
“Governments need to act on this crisis and find a solution to shore up timber supplies for pallet production before it’s too late,” Ms Kerr said.
