Running out Gas Stations in France Running On Empty As Strikes Enter Fourth Day
Vegetable/legume company HAK STOPS production for 6 weeks starting 2023.
Energy prices make it infeasible to produce, says the market leader best known for the glass jars of applesauce, peas and brown beans.
“It is not only the high price, but also the uncertainty, says director Timo Hoogeboom. “Today it is two euros for a cubic meter of gas, it used to be three euros. We don’t know what it will be in January or February. So to be on the safe side, we will remain closed.”
If it is no longer possible to pass on the higher energy prices to consumers, the availability of products may ultimately also be compromised. “If companies have to sell below cost for months, things go wrong.” He does not expect any empty shelves for HAK for the time being. “But I don’t rule it out for the chain, especially in January, February and March.” A temporary energy ceiling for companies could help, the HAK director thinks.
“Companies will first look at how they can absorb the costs themselves, but if that is no longer possible, they will have to scale down,” confirms food economist Morren. “I expect this to happen more widely.”
HAK temporarily stops production due to energy costs, applesauce and peas are more expensive
Netherlands energy crisis: Households cut themselves off from gas
Netherlands: greenhouses and growers increasingly shutting down operations due to energy prices. Those greenhouses accounted for nearly 40% of veg in Europe…
Video opens with a business owner heating her store with candles/terracotta: “I lost my customers with COVID, and now inflation is so high people don’t have money to buy children’s clothes.“
The elderly person with candle/terracotta heater is, to me, iconic of the strangulation that is gripping Europe in this engineered energy crisis.
French refinery strikes takes half of the nation’s refining capacity offline – forcing France’s largest sugar maker, Tereos, to curtail production
Diesel and petrol stations in France are running out of fuel, according to an industry union, as a refining strike takes its toll. The strike, which among others, took Total’s 240,000 bpd Gonfreville refinery offline as well as a couple of Exxon’s, was expected to conclude on Thursday…but Friday, reports came in that strikes were disrupting Total’s oil products refining and delivery for a fourth day — 60% of the nation’s total refining capacity.
“There is no need to rush to the station (for gas),” TotalEnergies said on Friday. Despite those affirmations, France’s largest sugar maker, Tereos, said it had to curtail production somewhat at some of its factories after Total advised it that it would not be able to supply it with any more diesel until the end of the week.
France was already battling a shortage of refined products, with Russia’s exports to Europe “falling” in recent months.
