Here’s another unexpected example of how supply chains have been upended by the pandemic: Glass bottles used for everything from vinegar to pasta sauces are getting tied up in their own bottlenecks. That’s driving prices higher when you can get the bottles at all.
Just like many other industries struggling to secure supplies, producers of pasta sauce and high-end spirits are seeing the glass used in their humble containers tied up in massive cargo jams, and that’s forcing them to either absorb the higher costs or pass them on to consumers.
Little relief appears to be in sight: The Labor Department reported Wednesday that consumer prices had risen 5.4% over the last 12 months matching the highest level of inflation in more than a dozen years. Groceries and gasoline were significant drivers of the recent price increases.
Businesses such as Lindera Farms in Delaplane, Va., have struggled to find bottles at any price.
This has been a banner season for the artisanal vinegar maker, but owner Daniel Liberson worries that unless an overdue shipment of glass bottles arrives from Italy in the next few weeks, he won’t be able to package his product in time for the all-important Christmas season.
“There’s a captain of a shipping vessel who holds my life in his hands,” Liberson says. “Basically, if anything goes wrong with this shipment, I’m screwed.”
