Omicron Creates Questions For The Start of 2022

According to one American Farm Bureau economist, the surging Omicron COVID variant poses a big unknown for January’s agricultural economy and other sectors. Omicron is forcing new business and school closures, thousands of airline cancellations, renewed mask and vaccine mandates, and new worries among farmers of input delays.

“I think it pushes the delays even further and causes a lot of back-up issues for the availability of necessary inputs for farming and ranching.”

The AFBF’s Shelby Myers says producers have already faced a year-and-a-half of supply chain delays and soaring costs. Now, she fears, they could face more.

“You have slowdowns at a production facility, domestic or abroad, and then the transit, cost, supply to get it to its final destination. Any kind of hiccups that have occurred through there, any labor shortages, container shortages, all of those, impacting the flow of goods and that pace of flow.”  

She noted once those chemical and supplies land in the U.S., getting them where they need to be remains a challenge. She says truckers, warehouse workers, airline employees, and others are in short supply. And as Omicron cases move higher and hospitals hit capacity, some economists are now predicting economic growth could slow next year.

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