Noodle shortage affecting supply at Calgary's Vietnamese restaurants
Local Vietnamese restaurants are scrambling to maintain supplies of one of their most basic ingredients: Pho noodles.
The owners of Calgary’s Pho Kim restaurant tried to stock up on rice noodles, but their supplier is currently rationing supplies.
"When we heard that there would be a shortage we tried to get as much as we could," said Sandy Trinh, co-owner of Pho Kim Vietnamese Restaurant. " But then they started limiting how many boxes go out to every restaurant. And then we tried sourcing out other types of noodles, other brands, and even we went to fresh noodles.
"The suppliers aren't getting enough products to ration out to all the restaurants at the moment so we're doing the best that we can to find the best quality best products for our customers to keep our soup and our noodles and everything consistent."
The noodle shortage affects noodle shops and Vietnamese restaurants across the city.
CTV News contacted 12 separate restaurants, and all confirmed they are having difficulty sourcing noodles and other products traditionally imported from Southeast Asia.
As with any shortage it means prices have skyrocketed for the ingredients.
"Back at the beginning of summer a case of noodles was going for about $40," said Tai Trinh, who with his sister runs Pho Kim. "Now we are paying $60 a case."
He says a case of noodles contains 30 packages and a busy Vietnamese restaurant can burn through that in just over a day.
"We'll grab about 10 (cases) and that should last us a week or two, but that's pretty much all the (the suppliers) are letting us take right now."
The shortage is largely a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected both manufacturing and shipping in Southeast Asia.
The surging Delta variant in Asian populations with low vaccination rates has left many factories there crippled by worker shortages.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city and its export hub, is facing tough travel restrictions and is under a virtual lockdown.
One of the world's busiest ports in Ningbo, China was also partially closed for two weeks in August due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
Sam Woods of Jori Logistics says to add to the burden, the world’s largest companies are buying up most of the available space on shipping lines, essentially shutting out smaller importers.
“Unless you're buying, you know, 10s of 1000s of containers of noodles a year, you're going to be kind of stuck paying the spot market prices, which have just skyrocketed right now," s aid Woods “The small, and medium-sized guy can't get onto the ship, because it's all been taken by the bigger guys. And if he wants on the ship, he's got to pay a premium to get on there.”
Woods said a shipping container from Asia to Calgary cost approximately $2500 at the beginning of last year. Right now that same container costs approximately $20,000 to ship.
“Rates just keep coming up. They've stabilized a little bit in the last couple of weeks. We've actually seen it go down a blip. But it's like a pint of good news and an ocean of bad news," said Woods.
In the face of those international stresses, Calgary restauranteurs are left struggling to maintain quality and price for their customers.
"At the moment we're trying our best to but it's been a tough two years with the COVID closures," said Sandy Trinh. "So we're trying our best to keep the cost the same but, yeah, eventually everything's going to have to go up."
Trinh says her restaurant has enough noodles on hand to last about a week, but isn't certain how much will be available when she goes back to her wholesaler later this week.
"Unfortunately, if they don't get another shipment in then we make what we can and we find whatever products we can sell."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
First court appearance for boy and girl charged in death of Halifax 16-year-old
A girl and a boy, both 14 years old, made their first appearance today in a Halifax courtroom, where they each face a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old high school student.