PMA and CPMA join forces for webinar on preparation for bird flu
PMA and CPMA join forces for webinar on preparation for bird flu
By now most people have heard of the bird flu that has spread across Southeast Asia and parts of Europe and the doomsday scenarios that the media have reported that could take place should the Influenza A/H5N1 virus become capable of being transmitted from human to human.
While no one can predict with 100 percent certainty if and when such an event might happen, experts believe that it is only a matter of time before a flu pandemic will occur. If it did, how would it affect people and businesses? What steps should businesses take to prepare for this -- or any other unforeseen disasters for that matter?
These were some of the topics that were addressed during a two- part Internet and telephone-based webinar July 25 and Aug. 1 hosted by the Produce Marketing Association and the Canadian Produce Marketing Association.
Two expert panels on the subject during each of the hour-and-a- half-long webinars gave participants insight into the steps being taken by the U.S. and Canadian governments, what businesses could expect to happen should a pandemic take place and what business could do to prepare and recover.
The first presentation of the July 25 webinar, "Bird Flu & How it Could Affect Your Company," was given by Arthur Liang, the associate director of food safety for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
Dr. Liang told participants that there are three types of flu: seasonal, avian and pandemic, and that while seasonal and avian strains are always present, pandemic strains are not, and that is what concerns experts because there is no natural immunity in humans like there is to seasonal strains.
According to Dr. Liang, since 2004, there have been 222 documented cases of the H5N1 virus worldwide with 125 deaths, giving it a 56 percent fatality rate, though he said that there has been no sustained human-to-human transmission.
Claudia Zuccolo of Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness Canada said that her agency views a pandemic as a threat as great to Canada's critical infrastructure as a flood or computer virus.
"Critical infrastructure is not only buildings and pipelines and physical assets but people who operate them," she said. The PSEPC is encouraging those in the public sector, such as those in the food industry, to organize and then the agency will provide information and facilitate planning, she said.
Ms. Zuccolo said that one of the bigger threats to business is the absenteeism that industry may face during a "wave." The Canadian government has forecast a 13 percent rate of absenteeism in a single city during a peak week, though it is planning for the possibility of a 20-25 percent absentee rate. Kathy Means, vice president of government relations for PMA, gave the final -- and perhaps the most important -- presentation for the fresh produce sector on the effects the food industry might expect if a pandemic occurs.
"We are the food industry and it is not the same as other industries," Ms. Means said. "We produce, manufacture, transport, distribute and market food. This is not like a new pair of shoes or a new fridge that you just defer. You have to be able to get food. It is essential to survival, and consumers are going to expect it to be available in a crisis."
Ms. Means said that staff could be absent from a half-day to a week or longer because they are sick, caring for a family member or even afraid of contracting the virus.
"The demands put on your HR departments are going to be incredible, and many of your current and familiar policies and practices will become obsolete," Ms. Means said. "Here at PMA we are taking a look at our own practices as a company and trying to figure out what are we going to do about this, as it is going to be very different and you have to have thought of it in advance rather than responding in the middle of a crisis."
Ms. Means said that the economic costs estimated for Canada alone in lost productivity are between $5 billion and $38 billion, and this will affect business and consumer spending patterns. Planning ahead will help companies to be more prepared if and when a pandemic occurs.
Ms. Means said that businesses should consider what a pandemic could do to their suppliers and that they should expect suppliers will face similar challenges, causing a "cumulative effect as suppliers of your suppliers, whether they are domestic or international, are affected in some manner by the pandemic. All distributors and chains will be trying to leverage relationships with the folks they do business with."
Transportation, which is critical for the produce industry, might be reallocated for other more urgent needs, similar to what happened during Hurricane Katrina when refrigerated trucks were urgently requested to respond to the Gulf Coast area.
Ms. Means said that a pandemic will cause customers' shopping habits to change, whether that means fewer visits to the store, or using Internet shopping or self-checkout so they do not have to interact with a cashier or other shoppers.
"[Consumers] may shift away from perishable products to prepackaged goods that they know they can keep at home and won't have to go back out to the store to replenish often," she said. "They may look to buy in bulk in case quantities and demand may outstrip supply as people really start stockpiling. They may shy away from imported products, thinking erroneously that 'well, that might not be safe.' We've already seen some of that in terms of Asian imports."
The foodservice sector might be particularly hard hit as people do not go out to eat as they become concerned with food preparation and coming into contact with other diners or even the person serving them, causing the restaurant business to "evaporate," though the same restaurants may be asked to provide food for ad hoc healthcare facilities that are set up in sites such as auditoriums or warehouses where there are no kitchens.
"The healthcare system is going to need more food to feed sick people and they will want healthy food to feed them," she said. Ms. Means said that it will be important for competitiveness to be set aside so that all the players in the supply chain can work together to keep products and services flowing during the chaos that might result from media coverage at the onset of the pandemic.
"Though it may take some time, after the initial panic, people will learn to cope and normalcy will return, though the impact on business will be considerable," Ms. Means said.
During the second webinar, "Business Continuity Planning & Pandemic Solutions," two speakers presented ways for produce businesses to prepare, survive and recover from a flu pandemic or other unforeseen incident.
Melanie L. Herman, executive director of the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, said that "businesses do not have to imagine all of the scenarios that might occur to plan effectively, but that the more flexible your plan, the wider the range of scenarios you've considered, the more likely you will actually be able to use the plan and the better it will serve your business."
Ms. Herman said that a business continuity plan "is a collection of procedures and information that is developed, compiled and maintained in readiness for use in an emergency or disaster and implementing one can be approached in seven steps: launching the business continuity plan project, reviewing organizational context and business functions, conducting business impact analysis, developing planning and response strategies, developing a written business continuity plan, testing and maintaining the business continuity plan, and instituting a continuity culture."
The second speaker, Gordon Cherry, the director of trade and commercial policy for Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, the country's largest trade and industry association, said that it had fielded several questions from a number of its members due to all the publicity avian flu was receiving in the media.
"We decided to take a look and see what information was out there for business to prepare for avian flu if it became a pandemic, and found that there was not much out there," Mr. Cherry said.
At that point, the CME drew up its own business continuity planning guide titled "Influenza Pandemic: Continuity Planning for Canadian Business" which was released in March, 2006. Mr. Cherry directed participants to the CME's web site (cme- mec.ca), which has a link to download its guide, as well as a 20- point pandemic preparedness checklist.
For more information on upcoming webinars, visit the web sites of the PMA at pma.com or the CPMA at cpma.ca.
While no one can predict with 100 percent certainty if and when such an event might happen, experts believe that it is only a matter of time before a flu pandemic will occur. If it did, how would it affect people and businesses? What steps should businesses take to prepare for this -- or any other unforeseen disasters for that matter?
These were some of the topics that were addressed during a two- part Internet and telephone-based webinar July 25 and Aug. 1 hosted by the Produce Marketing Association and the Canadian Produce Marketing Association.
Two expert panels on the subject during each of the hour-and-a- half-long webinars gave participants insight into the steps being taken by the U.S. and Canadian governments, what businesses could expect to happen should a pandemic take place and what business could do to prepare and recover.
The first presentation of the July 25 webinar, "Bird Flu & How it Could Affect Your Company," was given by Arthur Liang, the associate director of food safety for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
Dr. Liang told participants that there are three types of flu: seasonal, avian and pandemic, and that while seasonal and avian strains are always present, pandemic strains are not, and that is what concerns experts because there is no natural immunity in humans like there is to seasonal strains.
According to Dr. Liang, since 2004, there have been 222 documented cases of the H5N1 virus worldwide with 125 deaths, giving it a 56 percent fatality rate, though he said that there has been no sustained human-to-human transmission.
Claudia Zuccolo of Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness Canada said that her agency views a pandemic as a threat as great to Canada's critical infrastructure as a flood or computer virus.
"Critical infrastructure is not only buildings and pipelines and physical assets but people who operate them," she said. The PSEPC is encouraging those in the public sector, such as those in the food industry, to organize and then the agency will provide information and facilitate planning, she said.
Ms. Zuccolo said that one of the bigger threats to business is the absenteeism that industry may face during a "wave." The Canadian government has forecast a 13 percent rate of absenteeism in a single city during a peak week, though it is planning for the possibility of a 20-25 percent absentee rate. Kathy Means, vice president of government relations for PMA, gave the final -- and perhaps the most important -- presentation for the fresh produce sector on the effects the food industry might expect if a pandemic occurs.
"We are the food industry and it is not the same as other industries," Ms. Means said. "We produce, manufacture, transport, distribute and market food. This is not like a new pair of shoes or a new fridge that you just defer. You have to be able to get food. It is essential to survival, and consumers are going to expect it to be available in a crisis."
Ms. Means said that staff could be absent from a half-day to a week or longer because they are sick, caring for a family member or even afraid of contracting the virus.
"The demands put on your HR departments are going to be incredible, and many of your current and familiar policies and practices will become obsolete," Ms. Means said. "Here at PMA we are taking a look at our own practices as a company and trying to figure out what are we going to do about this, as it is going to be very different and you have to have thought of it in advance rather than responding in the middle of a crisis."
Ms. Means said that the economic costs estimated for Canada alone in lost productivity are between $5 billion and $38 billion, and this will affect business and consumer spending patterns. Planning ahead will help companies to be more prepared if and when a pandemic occurs.
Ms. Means said that businesses should consider what a pandemic could do to their suppliers and that they should expect suppliers will face similar challenges, causing a "cumulative effect as suppliers of your suppliers, whether they are domestic or international, are affected in some manner by the pandemic. All distributors and chains will be trying to leverage relationships with the folks they do business with."
Transportation, which is critical for the produce industry, might be reallocated for other more urgent needs, similar to what happened during Hurricane Katrina when refrigerated trucks were urgently requested to respond to the Gulf Coast area.
Ms. Means said that a pandemic will cause customers' shopping habits to change, whether that means fewer visits to the store, or using Internet shopping or self-checkout so they do not have to interact with a cashier or other shoppers.
"[Consumers] may shift away from perishable products to prepackaged goods that they know they can keep at home and won't have to go back out to the store to replenish often," she said. "They may look to buy in bulk in case quantities and demand may outstrip supply as people really start stockpiling. They may shy away from imported products, thinking erroneously that 'well, that might not be safe.' We've already seen some of that in terms of Asian imports."
The foodservice sector might be particularly hard hit as people do not go out to eat as they become concerned with food preparation and coming into contact with other diners or even the person serving them, causing the restaurant business to "evaporate," though the same restaurants may be asked to provide food for ad hoc healthcare facilities that are set up in sites such as auditoriums or warehouses where there are no kitchens.
"The healthcare system is going to need more food to feed sick people and they will want healthy food to feed them," she said. Ms. Means said that it will be important for competitiveness to be set aside so that all the players in the supply chain can work together to keep products and services flowing during the chaos that might result from media coverage at the onset of the pandemic.
"Though it may take some time, after the initial panic, people will learn to cope and normalcy will return, though the impact on business will be considerable," Ms. Means said.
During the second webinar, "Business Continuity Planning & Pandemic Solutions," two speakers presented ways for produce businesses to prepare, survive and recover from a flu pandemic or other unforeseen incident.
Melanie L. Herman, executive director of the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, said that "businesses do not have to imagine all of the scenarios that might occur to plan effectively, but that the more flexible your plan, the wider the range of scenarios you've considered, the more likely you will actually be able to use the plan and the better it will serve your business."
Ms. Herman said that a business continuity plan "is a collection of procedures and information that is developed, compiled and maintained in readiness for use in an emergency or disaster and implementing one can be approached in seven steps: launching the business continuity plan project, reviewing organizational context and business functions, conducting business impact analysis, developing planning and response strategies, developing a written business continuity plan, testing and maintaining the business continuity plan, and instituting a continuity culture."
The second speaker, Gordon Cherry, the director of trade and commercial policy for Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, the country's largest trade and industry association, said that it had fielded several questions from a number of its members due to all the publicity avian flu was receiving in the media.
"We decided to take a look and see what information was out there for business to prepare for avian flu if it became a pandemic, and found that there was not much out there," Mr. Cherry said.
At that point, the CME drew up its own business continuity planning guide titled "Influenza Pandemic: Continuity Planning for Canadian Business" which was released in March, 2006. Mr. Cherry directed participants to the CME's web site (cme- mec.ca), which has a link to download its guide, as well as a 20- point pandemic preparedness checklist.
For more information on upcoming webinars, visit the web sites of the PMA at pma.com or the CPMA at cpma.ca.
