Food shortages in south

BY SARAH LAMONT

Loaves of bread are disappearing off the shelves, as food shortages hit after the Canterbury earthquake.

Progressive Enterprises Limited store operations manager Dave Chambers said yesterday the problem for the South Island was that the food distribution centres were all in Christchurch.

Christchurch was the top priority right now, particularly for items like water, he said.

Unfortunately Invercargill was at the end of the line.

Items for supermarkets in Invercargill had to be distributed from Palmerston North and Auckland which could take time, Mr Chambers said.

The area could expect more items to be here by tomorrow after they were dispatched from the North Island on Sunday.

The key was for people not to panic, so that it did not put more pressure on getting the food items through, Mr Chambers said.

He encouraged people to buy what they needed but not to stock up.

"We would really appreciate that."

The main focus at the moment was to get Christchurch stores back up and running which Progressive was in the process of doing now, Mr Chambers said.

"We are still in emergency mode."

Foodstuffs South Island chief executive Steve Anderson said yesterday that all its stores were up and running except Kaiapoi.

He said the whole of the South Island had been affected but there had been no change in terms of distribution to Invercargill which received its supplies from Dunedin.

Like Progressive Enterprises, Mr Anderson said Foodstuffs had to get supplies from across the Cook Strait to Christchurch and Dunedin.

Mr Anderson said there would be some places out of stock but they were trying to stock items like bread and water as best as they could.

- © Fairfax NZ News