What do the tsunami in Japan, Hurricane Katrina, the financial crisis and the presidential election of 2008 have in common? They’re all playing a key role in the recent surge in food storage sales across the U.S.
Based in Kaysville, Utah, Tomorrow’s Harvest food storage sales have “blown up” since 2008, Mike Porenta, the company’s co-owner and chief operations officer, said. It’s a topic Porenta’s familiar within his side role as chief operations manager at the American Preppers Network, one of the biggest online forums and resources for people stocking up on food storage, said in an interview.
Revenue at Tomorrow’s Harvest has jumped by 900 percent since 2009, Porenta said while declining to give specific figures. In 2011, the American Preppers Network had its biggest sales year ever and he expects 2012 to be even larger. The company sells freeze-dried food and other items for emergencies. They did 50 percent of their business east of the Mississippi in 2011 and just 5 percent in the first quarter of 2012 was in Utah.
“That is new for our industry. We’ve always just dealt with the west,” Porenta said. “I think the financial crisis of 2008 really started pushing people and the movement swept.”
While some buy food storage to prepare for the end of the world, most buy for economic reasons, Melanie Woodward, sales manager of retail at Mountain House Food based in Albany, Ore., said in an interview. Oregon Freeze Dry owns Mountain House, the largest freeze-dried food producer in the U.S.
Food storage wasn’t very popular among Americans outside some religious groups before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Woodward said. The industry would see temporary jumps in sales for events such as Y2K and the Cold War. But once Katrina hit, the industry saw “rapid growth,” Woodward said.