Cabinet finishing national food crisis plan; supermarkets not yet required to hold stocks
Supermarkets and distribution centres do not have to keep emergency food stocks today, but the cabinet's plans say such stocks must eventually be built.
The cabinet is putting the finishing touches to a National Food Security Crisis Plan (Landelijk Crisisplan Voedselzekerheid), State Secretary Erkens says. The contingency plans for food supply are due to be ready in the coming year. "We are putting as much speed on it as possible," he says.
Supermarkets and distribution centres are currently not obliged to keep an emergency stockpile. Erkens says he is in talks with supermarkets to see whether they will build emergency stocks of critical goods together, so there is something to fall back on in disruptive situations.
Erkens believes existing distribution centres could hold emergency stocks, at the cost of maximum efficiency. That would put two or three days of goods in the distribution centres to absorb a first shock, he says. The government is mapping which products are essential. Only truly necessary product categories would need a stockpile, he says: missing kiwis would be no national disaster.
Marc Janssen, director of the supermarket trade body CBL (Centraal Bureau Levensmiddelenhandel), says that is hard in existing buildings in the short term because of limited storage space. More stock would mean rebuilding. An alternative, he says, is for the government to buy or build warehouses and fill them, with close agreements on logistics and distribution, for example through shops or community centres.
Albert Heijn was hacked this week. Janssen says the incident shows supermarkets need an "option B" with more analogue food distribution, so they do not depend only on digital systems.
Earlier this month, researchers from the Clingendael institute and Erasmus University warned that the Netherlands is insufficiently prepared for a food security disaster. Researcher Pieter Zwaan says the best preparation is at home. He advises keeping eight days of food rather than three. For people without the space or money, he says, supermarkets could hand out products in a coordinated way in a real crisis.
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CBL (Centraal Bureau Levensmiddelenhandel)
The CBL is the Dutch trade association for food retail, representing supermarkets and other grocery retailers. It speaks for the sector in talks with the government and other bodies on matters such as supply, logistics and food policy. Its positions matter because the big supermarket chains coordinate through it when issues like emergency food stocks or crisis planning come up.
Clingendael Institute
The Clingendael Institute is an independent Dutch think tank on international relations, security and governance, based in The Hague. It publishes research and policy reports on topics including security, crisis preparedness and public policy, and its work is often cited in Dutch public debate and by government.