Hey, where’s the pepperoni?!

The onslaught of Covid-19 shortages continues, and this time it’s affecting everyone’s favorite pizza add-on: pepperoni. According to Bloomberg, increased prices and lack of availability of the ingredient are compounded by several pandemic-based factors. For one thing, the process and marginal profitability of making and curing the product has made manufacturers rethink where to focus limited labor efforts. Then there are all of those processing plant closures and outbreaks compromising meat supply chains. The result are price hikes as high as 50 percent for independently owned pizzerias, which tend to have less buying power than chain operators. “It’s an American right to have pepperoni on pizza,” a pizzeria owner told Bloomberg. “Pepperoni is such a huge part of pizza it’s important to us that we keep it accessible.”