Close calls: What industry can learn from Southern California’s firestormClose calls: What industry can learn from Southern California’s firestorm

Footage from the wildfires that scorched Southern California this January was as otherworldly as anything to come out of the Hollywood dream factories located just outside the line of fire. And while the flames may’ve delayed movie production and premiers, at least they spared the studios themselves.

Much the same can be said of Southern California’s food industry, which, though not as celebrated as Hollywood, is big business nonetheless — encompassing everything from manufacturing, distribution and agriculture to branding, ideation and food service. Per the California League of Food Producers, food processing alone employs almost 78,000 Southern Californians.

As founder and CEO of Orange County-based UNiTE Food, Clara Paye is a member of that food community, and she thanks her lucky stars that UNiTE and its local peers remain largely up and running.

“Still, the ripple effects are being felt across the industry,” Paye said. And they’re offering lessons for next time.

High alert

“The LA fires have been devastating,” Paye explained. “As you can imagine, all of Southern California has been on high alert.”

Fortunately, most of the havoc played out far from manufacturing and production hubs, with the state’s agricultural heart sitting well to the north. Reports, however, have emerged of southland farms suffering collateral damage all the same.

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Smoke taint, for example, threatens crops’ organoleptic quality, and Southern California’s lemon growers noted that high winds scarred fruit and degraded a key selling point: visual appeal.

In San Diego, avocados regularly rank as the fourth-largest crop, but with strong winds laying waste to trees, losses have run as high as 50% in some in some cases, and both supplies and the commodity’s ranking have been compromised.

Be prepared

Such outcomes have turned Paye’s thoughts toward readiness.                                

“The fires brought to mind the need for disaster scenario planning,” she reflected. “For a small, emerging brand, that isn’t always top of mind, and it was a good opportunity to think about what redundancies we could build into our business — everything from our IT infrastructure to where we warehouse our inventory and what our partners do to diversify their own risk exposure.”

She wishes all food businesses would stress test their resiliency with internal teams and partners. “We must all be able to pivot quickly to ensure our products continue to reach retailers and consumers without delays,” she said.

Déjà vu all over again

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In a sense, it takes Paye back to early Covid, “with all of us asking questions about how we would be impacted,” she recalled. “And sure enough, it was a few months that the supply chain was impacted severely.”

Supplies tightened again when war broke out in Ukraine, rendering sunflower oil “scarce virtually overnight,” she said. But she considers that geopolitical crisis another “good case study” in how nimble positioning can keep production running despite circumstantial chokeholds.

California matters

“Disruptions this severe can trigger worldwide inflation, sadly impacting the poorest most vulnerable countries the most,” Paye explained. And given the scale of California’s food production and its vulnerability to disaster, a massive disruption there could be even more catastrophic.

Thus, with California “an integral spoke in the global food supply chain, it’s clear that resilience needs to be a top priority for our industry,” Paye said. “That means rethinking how we operate — building more flexible, decentralized supply chains, keeping stronger inventory reserves and having solid plans in place for when disasters strike.”

Come together

As a side benefit, doing so opens space for optimism, as does the strength that unites Southern California’s food sector.

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“When crises like these happen, they underscore how deeply connected our industry is and how much we rely on one another to keep things moving,” Paye said. “Many were reaching out to support LA fire victims with their products, and it was heartwarming to see. Food is such a big part of our lives, not just as a business but as a source of comfort and community. It’s in moments like this when we need to come together, lean on each other and get creative to overcome the challenges we’re facing.”