With chicken, pork shortages looming, is it time to buy a freezer?

A New Jersey Whole Foods supermarket bone dry of chicken (Bloomberg photo)

When we went to a local market last week and found no fresh chicken except for party wings, we figured it was a blip in the supply chain due to COVID-19, but it's not a blip, it's a warning sign of what's to come.

From increasing costs of eggs to predicted shortages of beef, pork and chicken, the complex intricacies of our nation's food industry will begin to be increasingly felt in the months to come for a host of different reasons.

Much of the future uncertainty is due to the closure of thousands of restaurants across the country. Wholesale delivery system to restaurants are far different than to supermarket chains.

Milk for restaurants is packaged in large plastic pouches that fit into metal refrigerated units, but when that demand dried up after restaurant closures were ordered, there was no way to package it in time and much of went bad.

With restaurant demand for eggs down, hens were slaughtered or buried. A Seacoast supermarket executive recently told us that eggs are getting pricey and will likely stay that way.

The person, who didn't want to be named as he is not authorized to speak officially, said chicken and later pork will become increasingly scarce in the coming weeks.

So occasional blips in the supply chain will soon turn to actual shortages for many meat products.

The newspaper Politico reported on Thursday that "the amount of frozen pork in storage nationwide -- more than 621 million pounds -- dropped 4 percent from March to April, according to USDA numbers reported this week. Slaughter rates are down 25 percent, and 400,000 animals are backed up in slaughterhouses."

Much of the slaughterhouse slowdown is due to social distancing guidelines that prevent close work among workers, hundreds of whom have contracted COVID-19. At least two USDA meat safety inspectors have died, Politico reported.

Could it be time to buy a freezer?