Resilience Lessons From the Southeast United States Woody Pellet Supply Chain Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic†

Abstract

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) instigated a pandemic that impacted economies, employment, and shipping worldwide. This paper reviews how one international supply chain performed and identifies lessons that may be helpful to improve future resilience. Economic and employment data through November 2020 are used to review the effects of COVID-19 on operations of the bioenergy supply chain in the southeastern United States (SE United States) that utilizes wood fiber to fabricate pellets. Conditions associated with the production of pellets in the SE United States changed with the outbreak of COVID-19. Federal and state government programs and classification of workers in this sector as “essential” during the pandemic helped maintain the woody pellet supply chain and other industries during a period of general shut down in 2020. The availability of personal protective equipment, long-term supply contracts, and established safety cultures are among the factors that enhance supply chain resilience while limited availability of skilled workers, inadequate stakeholder engagement, and dependence on external policies are among factors that reduce resilience. The analysis concludes with recommendations for the SE pellet supply chain, and other biomass supply chains, to improve their resilience to future disturbances. When best practices are implemented, SE United States biomass offers opportunities to contribute to post-pandemic economic recovery while incentivizing better forest resource management.

The Contributions of Biomass Supply for Bioenergy in the Post-COVID-19 Recovery

“…The pandemic exposed limitations (short run) and opportunities (long run) in dealing with energy supply, in general, and the role of biomass, in particular. The food supply chain review identified small farmers as a group particularly affected by the pandemic, and study experts emphasized a need to avoid food protection policies to prevent an increase in food prices, consistent with other publications [57,58]. Others highlighted the vulnerability of SMEs in general [3].…”

“…Experts reported different resilience of BSChs to the economic disturbances due to the pandemic during the first six months (by September 2020), which is supported by research (e.g., [57][58][59]) published after the survey had been implemented. For instance, health and food safety measures resulted in increased interest in automation and robotics in the food and beverage industry as compensation for the limited availability of workers [4,60].…”

“…Others highlighted the vulnerability of SMEs in general [3]. Yet, wood pellet producers in the southeastern United States fared better in terms of employment than the United States economy overall just because previously implemented systems designed to promote safe operations were fit to reduce the impact of the pandemic [58].…”

“…This brings some cause for concern; a consensus of experts from modern biomass sectors rated current national investments in the biomass supply chain as slightly insufficient to insufficient. However, the world economy is on track for strong growth in 2021, despite the recovery being uneven between countries, and sectors closely tied to bioenergy (agriculture and wood product manufacturing) coping better than most other sectors [58].…”

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Biomass Supply Chains: The Case of the Canadian Wood Pellet Industry

“…Canada's forest sector was affected by the drastic changes in demand for forest products over the course of the pandemic, a trend also observed in the United States [6]. Although the Canadian forest sector is well acquainted with market shocks and had taken steps to mitigate anticipated risks [7,8], it was unclear how exactly the sector would be affected at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and how these impacts would spill over Energies 2022, 15, 3179 2 of 18 into related industries.…”