Fresh produce and freshly brewed coffee are the lifeblood of Vayda Menmuir's business, but she's worried those could soon be tough to come by.
The owner of a cafe in the Northern Territory town of Katherine said she has been forced to make changes to her procurement decisions as critical supply chain disruptions continue in the Territory.
She said she has heard about shortages of fresh supplies impacting hospitality businesses in the NT's urban centres, and is bracing for scarcity to hit her town as well.
"We are worried that we won't be able to get fruit and vegetables," she said.
"We realised there are going to be issues and we've tried to rectify that by buying bulk, because we haven't been able to through our suppliers.
"I've had to buy bulk milk at Woolworths, which I feel quite guilty about, but if I don't do that we can't make coffee.
"On top of a significant worker shortage, it is a worry."
The transport of food and other essential supplies into the NT was thrown into chaos last week after heavy rain flooded the southern end of the Stuart Highway, which connects Darwin and Adelaide.
The major road has been closed for about a week, cutting off road freight to much of the Northern Territory.
In Darwin, Melissa Djafar said the Coconut Grove cafe she manages had also been feeling the pinch.
The cafe ran short of milk, vegetables and meat during much of the past week – but compared to how much some other Darwin businesses had been impacted, Ms Djafar said staff considered themselves "pretty lucky" to have avoided the worst of the scarcities.
"Mainly what we've been touched by is the milk delivery, and for a cafe that's quite an inconvenience," she said.
"With the vegetables, there was a bit of a shortage, but it was only for four days so we dealt with what we had.
"[And] yesterday, the meat company ... said they had some meat available, so I've made a big order just in case. If the rain keeps coming, at least we should be covered until next Tuesday.
"We didn't really remove anything from the menu, we just swapped items; and if we don't have [something], we just don't have it.
Retail food businesses have also been hit hard.
Kenny Lay, who owns the IGA in the Darwin suburb of Zuccoli, said fresh produce had been disappearing within "a matter of hours" at his store.
"I would imagine that within the half an hour customers were coming and taking things out of the boxes without even hitting the shelves," he told ABC Radio Darwin's Drive program on Monday.
"I think the whole fruit and veg department went from full to empty in a matter of a few hours, and that's unheard of.
"I haven't seen that in these times. Even during the panic-buying era."
Businesses already under pandemic pressure 'feeling the squeeze'
Alex Bruce, the chief executive of Hospitality NT, said the scarcity of fresh supplies was only compounding the strain cafes and restaurants were under, as they continue to grapple with significant worker shortages during the COVID-19 Omicron outbreak.
"Milk, particularly on the weekend, we've got a lot of reports that smaller operator cafes were running to the major supermarkets and getting their milk as well because they were having supply issues.
"Again it's a similar story to the general customer's reaction where, where the majors are out, people are still finding better supply chains with some of the smaller supermarkets. That's the case with us.
"People that are more heavily reliant on local supply or holding up a little bit better. Anyone that's part of those nationalised frameworks, that's where they hit us."
He said the supply disruptions could also have a flow-on impact to businesses' bottom lines.
"Some of the wholesalers are starting to report [seeing an increase in prices] and that will be challenging for us," he said.
"We're not aware that any menu prices have changed yet, but it's just putting a squeeze on businesses that are facing heavily declined revenue at the moment."
More supplies reportedly on the way
Authorities say the worst of the supply disruptions could be over in coming days as deliveries begin to arrive in Territory cities, towns and communities via alternate transport routes.
The South Australian State Emergency Service is also exploring options to pump away floodwater on the Stuart Highway so it can reopen as soon as possible, including to road freight between SA and the NT.
On Tuesday, a Coles spokeswoman said deliveries of meat, fresh produce and groceries had arrived in its NT supermarkets on Monday and they would "continue to have stock arriving daily".
The NT Police, Fire and Emergency Service also said on Tuesday that trucks were now on their way to restock supermarket shelves in remote areas in the south of the Territory.
NT Road Transport Association executive officer Louise Bilato told the NT Country Hour on Monday that there were "probably an extra dozen triple-road trains coming from Brisbane with foodstuffs this week".
"We're just hoping that the extra rain events that we're seeing don't block the Barkly," she said.
Mr Bruce said hospitality businesses were relieved to hear their supplies could be replenished soon.
"[We] did get some reports that fruit and veggies were starting to come back online yesterday, a lot of our guys are being told they will really get ramped up supplies from tomorrow," he said on Tuesday.
And he noted the recent food shortages hadn't been all bad news for the sector.
"We also think we saw a little bit of an uptick when people did go to the supermarkets and find those shelves bare, [and] a few more of them did don the masks and potentially come and get a feed [in restaurants and cafes]," he said.
