New York and New Jersey restaurants slowly reopen 2:43
(CNN Business) -
When doors open at Blake Street Tavern every day, business owner Chris Fuselier searches for customers and ketchup in envelopes.
"Absolutely," says the Denver restaurant owner.
"In hindsight, if you had asked me eighteen months ago if I had concerns about the shortage of ketchup in sachets, I would have said Are you crazy? '"
But since then, Fuselier has increasingly focused on the mad pursuit of sachet ketchup for its customers.
"It's gotten so bad that when I go to McDonald's or Wendy's," he says, "I'll save those extra packages to take back to Blake Street."
You are not alone in this situation.
The shortage of ketchup, specifically in the packages that often come with your take out order, began to appear across the country last summer, and the situation has worsened.
Ketchup, mustard, and spice packets sold in bulk during the pandemic
Why is there a shortage of ketchup in sachets?
It began when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not recommend traditional dinner service in restaurants and suggested more favorable options in the pandemic such as home delivery and takeout.
Suddenly, restaurants from coast to coast were packing entrees, side dishes, and cold drinks for a constant stream of people working from home or passing in their cars.
Those customers wanted additional sauces.
So those traditional restaurants were in direct competition with fast food places, which had also closed their dining rooms and increased their orders for packages of tomato sauce.
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Demand and prices went up, supply went down.
Heinz, the country's largest tomato sauce producer, is at the epicenter of the problem and is taking steps to address it.
Just a few days ago, the company announced "a 25% increase in production, for a total of 12,000 million sachets of tomato sauce ... per year."
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“We made strategic investments in manufacturing at the beginning of the pandemic to keep up with the increase in demand for ketchup packets driven by expedited delivery and takeout trends;
at the same time, we are also accelerating forward-looking and culinary production, packaging innovations, as well as additional manufacturing expansion plans, ”said Steve Cornell, president of Kraft Heinz's specialty and out-of-home business unit.
That's a long way of saying that the ketchup giant doesn't want anyone to be left empty-handed when looking for a little flavor as the pandemic wears off.
In Colorado, there is even more urgency in front of Coors Field, where Fuselier has his popular restaurant.
Quite unexpectedly, the Major League Baseball All Star game is coming to town in July, promising a windfall after a rough year.
He's committed to keeping up with the demand for ketchup, stocking as much as he can.
With a smile, he says, “I'm going to order now.
It is not a joke.
I have a hundred days.
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