Jan. 12, 2009
The Miramichi's wood pellet shortage may have eased a bit as a local supplier received a shipment Thursday.
Miramichi Feeds manager Robert MacDiarmid said they received a truck load of 1,200 bags of pellets and as of that morning, people didn't know they were in.
"There was just a few people in yet."
The pellets didn't come from Miramichi Feeds' usual source and MacDiarmid said the new supplier promised to be able to supply him with pellets as long as there was a truck to pick them up.
"If these go today I'll probably order another one right behind it."
For months people in the Miramichi have struggled to find pellets for their stoves, with stores selling out almost as soon as they got a new shipment. The pellet stoves are an alternative to the traditional wood stove. Once the fire is lit, an auger feeds the pellets into it a few at a time, with a fan blowing the heat away from the stove.
MacDiarmid said the pellets he received from the new supplier were a little more expensive than the ones they usually sell and he wasn't sure if customers would want to pay extra for them.
"Supply and demand I guess."
Miramichi Feeds still had a long waiting list of people who need pellets and at $1 per bag more than the other brand MacDiarmid said it would probably take a day to sell them all.
"Some people's not going to want to try them."
Tom Ettinger uses a pellet stove to heat his home and was a victim of the shortage earlier in the year. Ettinger ordered some through Miramichi Feeds and had to wait for them, but said he was able to pick some up from Canadian Tire a little less than a month ago.
"I got lots actually."
Despite the shortage, Ettinger said the pellets came before his supply ran out.
"It never came close to running out at all."
Now that the stove has been in use for a few months, Ettinger said he expects the pellets to cost about the same to heat his home as his old wood stove did.
"If that's the case then I'm ahead because it's a lot less work."
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