In the German supermarket courses, the toilet paper becomes scarce again. Some people are likely to feel reminded of the beginning of the Corona Pandemic. At that time, hamster purchases of consumers were responsible for the shortage. Today, the reasons are much more complex.
A main reason are the highly increased raw material prices, as the “food newspaper” reports. These lead to loss of failure in many places. The industry giants Essity and Sofidel have already announced significant price increases. With the retailers, however, they encounter incomprehension. For example, there was no agreement between EDEKA and the ZEWA manufacturer ESSITY. Even at Lidl and net there are first gaps in the shelves.
Toilet paper bottlenecks at Lidl, Edeka and Net: improvement is not in sight
Another reason is actually the Corona pandemic. But it concerns the manufacturers directly. Several suppliers report that large parts of the workforce are in quarantine due to illness or contact with infected. The production can therefore not be increased arbitrarily. The same applies to the maintenance of machines, which are sometimes much longer than normal for the same reasons.
In addition, simply too little raw material is often available. Because of Corona, there are clear delivery delays. At short notice, there is no improvement in sight. Instead, a strike of the workforce for the weeks of the Finnish pulp manufacturer UPM will be aggravating. The impact of it also feel German manufacturers.