Major retailers, including supermarkets, are reporting staff shortages of up to 35 per cent at distribution centres, with massive numbers of Australians furloughed due to COVID-19 isolation requirements.

CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, Tanya Barden, says there are now problems at both the store distribution level, and within the manufacturing process.

“In the last couple of weeks we’ve seen supermarkets putting some constraints on the amount of products that consumers can buy because they’ve had trouble getting their products from distribution centres into stores, but now what we’ve been seeing more recently is that manufacturers of those products are facing significant furloughing of staff and that’s impacting their ability to be able to produce products,” she told Emily Power and Jimmy Bartel.

And the pallet shortage late last year is exacerbating product shortages.

“Inventories have run down which has meant that now we’ve got lower supplies to start with, which means this workforce impact is having an even greater effect,” Ms Barden said.

“Consumers need to be prepared that they may not get everything they want.”

Coles last week introduced a two pack per person limit on minced meat, chicken breast, chicken thighs and sausages.

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Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci says the “major issue” is staff shortages in distribution centres, where he estimated between 20 and 40 per cent of workers are currently isolating due to COVID-19.

But that’s not the only issue.

“We do have truck driver challenges, we’ve got absenteeism of 20+ per cent with our home delivery trucks, and in store it’s somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent,” he told Tony Jones, filling in for Neil Mitchell.

Press PLAY below to hear about the challenges Woolworths is facing