Most of the shelves in the biggest supermarket on Norfolk Island are empty because of problems with the island's shipping service.
The shelves are almost empty at Foodland Supermarket due to shipping issues. Photo: Facebook / Betty Matthews
The supermarket's owner said two months without a ship visit meant islanders did not have access to many of the goods they considered basic necessities.
Geof Bennett said they had not had a ship visit the island since December and the two services prior to that also did not meet demand.
They were able to fly in some goods from Brisbane but the supermarket was hundreds of tonnes of product shy of what it would normally have.
"Sixty percent or more of the products in a supermarket are too heavy to air freight anyway - canned goods, bottled goods, flour, rice, sugar, packets of milk, and then chook feed and all that sort of stuff is just far too heavy to be economically airfreighted, so that stuff, there's just none available, and right now we are out of frozen vegetables."
Mr Bennett said they had chartered a jet from New Zealand this weekend, but he anticipated problems with shipping would continue throughout the year.
Norfolk Islands biggest supermarket, Foodland. Photo: Facebook / Betty Matthews
