The Compounded Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic and Desert Locust Outbreak on Food Security and Food Supply Chain

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and locust swarm outbreaks pose a significant threat to global food systems, causing severe disruptions in both local and international food supplies from farm to fork. The main objective of this study is to understand and identify the disruptions during the crises and create a map of how resilience can be established to recover and sustain the food supply chain (FSC) functions as well as food security. The detrimental impacts of the compound crises on the FSC are explored and the effects of the affected areas are estimated under optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. As a response to the disruption caused by the crisis in FSCs, reactive and proactive solutions are proposed to develop resilience at the food sector level. In the short term, the reactive solutions, consisting of smoothing the food demand, supply and delivery, and food production and processing, can be borrowed. In the long term, the proactive solutions can be conducted by developing multi-level short intertwined FSCs. Our comprehensive investigation of the resilience elements in diverse operations and potential strategies should contribute to the improvement of FSC resilience in the face of ongoing and growing threats.

Sustainability of Food Placement in Retailing during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…There are problems such as interruption of food availability, shifting demand to cheaper and less nutritious food, instability of food prices, food contamination, etc. [4]. Food itself is not a way of transmitting the virus [29].…”

“…Precaution measures in the food sector that directly affect the FSC involve the workers' health (work from home, and self-isolation), personal hygiene (handwashing), frequent disinfection of surfaces and equipment for food preparation, maintaining a clean working environment, mandatory personal protective equipment (masks, and gloves), social distancing, etc. Although these measures are applied in all phases of FSC, the most precautionary measures are crucial in the last phase, namely, consumption [4]. (6) Food price: is closely related to the restriction of consumer movements and changes in their needs.…”

“…Analyzed theoretical views and presented research results of various studies [1,4,5,11,13,14,[25][26][27]30,31] on the challenges of food placement in the COVID-19 pandemic, provide a basis for identifying the most significant indicators for FSC sustainability. The purpose of the research is to determine the degree of existence of a statistically significant correlation between food placement and identified sustainability indicators.…”

“…Panic accumulation and stockpiling of long-lasting food products (flour, oil, sugar, salt, bottled water) and easily perishable foods (meat and meat products, milk and milk products, fish, etc.) caused a delay in the supply chain and shortages in retail stores [4]. The lockdowns that marked the beginning and end of 2020 revealed a change in consumer behavior patterns which resulted in a major disparity between supply and demand, delays and errors in deliveries, impaired conditions of product safety, and difficulty in storing and keeping supplies, especially in countries and regions with underdeveloped infrastructure and a lack of transparency in the supply chain [5].…”

“…This work focuses on a sustainability analysis of the food supply chain (FSC) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors identify the most important sustainability problems which arose in the FSC as infrastructure [11], consistency and transparency of the supply chain [5], a qualified workforce [12], costs and finances [13], food safety and security [4], food price [14], energy consumption, and changes in consumer needs [1]. The work aims to define the impact of the infrastructure, consistency, and transparency of the supply chain, workforce, costs, food safety and security, food price, energy consumption, and changes in consumer needs on the sustainability of the FSC in the retail sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”