Emerging COVID-19 impacts, responses, and lessons for building resilience in the seafood system

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns are creating health and economic crises that threaten food and nutrition security. The seafood sector provides important sources of employment and nutrition, especially in low-income countries, and is highly globalized, allowing shocks to propagate internationally. We use a resilience ‘action cycle’ framework to study the first five months of COVID-19-related disruptions, impacts, and responses to the seafood sector. Looking across high- and low-income countries, we find that some supply chains, market segments, companies, small-scale actors and civil society have shown initial signs of greater resilience than others. For example, frozen Ecuadorian shrimp and Chinese tilapia exports were diverted to alternative markets, while live-fresh supply chains were more impacted. COVID-19 has also highlighted the vulnerability of certain groups working in- or dependent on the seafood sector. We discuss early coping and adaptive responses, combined with lessons from past shocks, that could be considered when building resilience in the sector.

Future Socio-Political Scenarios for Aquatic Resources in Europe: An Operationalized Framework for Aquaculture Projections

“…Supply shortages triggered by political events or crises may generate rapid price fluctuations with the COVID-19 pandemic being a recent example. Lower demand at restaurants led to a 30% decrease in the price of imported live-fresh seafood within the EU, but for example no significant changes in volume or prices were observed for Norwegian salmon until mid-May 2020 (Love et al, 2020). Crude oil price response varied between different phases of the pandemic and fell together with other political developments (Aloui et al, 2019).…”

Adaptation and resilience of commercial fishers in the Northeastern United States during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Fishing fleets in many places experienced a significant decline in activity for the early part of 2020. The pandemic caused significant disruptions to food supply chains around the world [8], and seafood supply chains were no exception [9]. Industrial fleets in China, France, Spain, and Italy, for example, saw a 40-50% decrease in fishing effort in the first quarter of 2020 compared with the previous year [9].…”

“…However, social distancing measures and the resulting economic recession greatly shifted demand for seafood. In the spring of 2020, the pandemic had a significant impact on consumer demand for American seafood products, and subsequently the price of many seafood products dropped precipitously, either because they relied on export markets which were severely disrupted, or because they relied to a large extent on restaurant sales [2,9]. As early as January 2020, there were reports that the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions in China were already impacting demand for U.S. lobster exports [9], and impacts on the demand for many other seafood products soon followed.…”

“…Conversely, in winter and early spring of 2020, both foreign and domestic demand for frozen seafood remained high [7], and the FAO reported that effects on retail sales were mixed, as households looking to stock up on non-perishable goods increased their purchases of canned and frozen seafood products [10]. Along with a declining export market, seafood dealers also faced challenges with freight costs and flight availability to transport seafood overseas [9,11].…”

“…Prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, 70% of seafood spending in the United States occurred in restaurants [12]. These restaurant sales were severely reduced or in some cases lost altogether for the duration of stay-at-home orders when restaurants were closed or limited to take-out [9], and were slow to return as stay-at-home orders were lifted but restaurants remained closed or were limited to outdoor dining or serving at reduced capacity. In addition, there were significant disruptions to the supply chain from challenges related to social distancing requirements in processing facilities, at seafood dealers, at retailers, and with seafood transportation, as there have been in supply chains throughout the world.…”