As the one-third population of the world is trapped in their homes, all the services suffer. But, the food industry suffers a lot. Due to supply chain distortion, many fruits and vegetables are suffering from low or no supply of packets, which causes high prices of the product and less availability to consumers, especially to the poor.
The condition for agriculture is worse because our nearest grocery shops have empty shelves while farmers are forced to destroy their crops. Perishable crops ruin due to no transportation facility.
Due to lockdown, some farmers are facing staffing issues. In India, it is the season to harvest Rabi crop, but due to sudden lockdown, some of the labor either go back to their home or not coming out as they follow the guidelines issued by the Government of India.
Also, industries associated with the manufacturing of food packets, their stock will be of no use by the time when production is lifted because many food items will expire in weeks.
This pandemic impacts the milk sector, as many coffee and sweet shops closed, which leads to dumping trillion liters of milk worldwide.
This lockdown will affect the restaurant at a very rate because they’re shut. And, they could be affected when the lockdown ends because people got scared a lot. In India, Anurag Katriar, President of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), and CEO of deGustibus Hospitality, a chain of 27 restaurants, said, “We are looking at 50 percent restaurants to shut down if this lasts till May. There are only 5-6 chains that have cash reserves to sustain more than a month. That’s because restaurants work on about 15 percent EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) margins”.
But the negative impacts are not in every section.
As people are looking to increase their immune system, therefore this part of the industry is getting the benefit. Those industries which deal with basic food items are also growing as people are stocking these essential food items.
