Manitoba flour mill operates around the clock to meet rise in demand due to COVID-19 isolation

A Manitoba flour producer is"running around the clock" to meet a rise in demandas manypeople in isolation due to COVID-19 dust off their home-cooking skills and bread-making machines.

Clayton Manness, president and co-founder of Prairie Flour Mills Ltd., said he has noticed an uptick in sales.

"Ithink it's all to do with a fear factor that people want to have staple products at home in case this gets really drawn out,"Manness said. "And that has continued, but I don't expect that to last overly long."

Against "all good"advice,Mannesssaid he builthis independent business 20 years ago in Elie, Man., west of Winnipeg, without the backing of major grain companies.The mill, which primarily produces wheat flour and organic wheat flour, recently sawsales spike by about 30 per cent.

Sales began to surge mid-month, around the time the World Health Organization declared the outbreaka pandemic.

As of Sunday, there were more than630,000 confirmed cases ofCOVID-19worldwide. Manitoba saw its first death this week due to the novel coronavirusand the highest same-day jump in cases,up to 72 confirmed and probable cases as of Sunday.

As restaurants temporarily shutterand the province further restrictspublic gatheringsto a maximum of 10 people, grocers in Winnipeg appear to be struggling to keep staple products such as flour and sugar on their shelves.

Anxious customers have been hoarding food and supplies such as toilet paperagainst the advice of public health officials and Manitoba Health Minister Cameron Friesen,who saidearlier in March it is not necessary to stockpilefood.

At the mill, Manness said he has not laid off any of his 35 employees as a result of the outbreak and is running longer shifts to keep up with the high demand. The mill is shipping as much bulk flour as it can produce to supply retailers, includingclients in the United States and one of the largest bakeries in Winnipeg.

Manness said he has never seen an interest in baking like this. The per capita consumption of flour at home has been slowly dropping over the decades until this newfound desire to stockcupboards in residences "where people can bake their own bread and their own products," he said.

Personal hygiene and physical distancing measures are taken very seriously at the mill because"if we were to get the virus within the plant, then we no longer can produce food for people that want it," he said.

Manness said bags of wheat will keep pouring in for the next several weeks, which is about how long he imagines the "explosion of new demand" will last. Then they will drop back to a normal cycle grindingand refining up to 40,000 tonnes of product a year to be bagged up and delivered to retailers.

Mannesssaid he would be "overjoyed" if people kept up the old tradition of baking, which would benefit his business.

"As long as people have access to yeast and sugar, of course, then they can bake bread," he said.