The US government sets up an airlift to import baby milk powder from abroad. The Department of Defense “will use its contracts with commercial cargo airlines, as it did in the early months of the Covid pandemic, to ship products from factories overseas,” the White House said on Wednesday. The Pentagon is also supposed to bring baby food from abroad to the USA via scheduled flights. The government wants to take action against the lack of baby milk in large parts of the country.
The government also invoked a Cold War law, the so-called Defense Production Act, to oblige manufacturers of ingredients for baby milk production to give priority to milk powder factories and to fulfill their orders. This will “facilitate the increase in production and speed up supply chains,” the White House said.
In recent months, there have been delivery problems with baby milk in some regions of the USA, which poses major problems for parents of young children. The supply chains were initially affected by a shortage of workers due to the corona pandemic.
In addition, the largest US manufacturer Abbott Nutrition had to recall several products due to contamination. Its plant in the state of Michigan was closed in February and the company must renew its security measures before it can resume operations.
The failure of Abbott Nutrition exacerbated existing supply chain problems. The result: supermarket shelves are empty, many parents are desperately looking for baby milk powder for their children.
The Departments of Health and Agriculture had written to President Joe Biden calling on him to work with the Department of Defense. Together, the ministries are to identify possible supplies abroad that meet American standards next week.
