Operational Challenges in the Food Industry and Supply Chain during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Literature Review

Abstract

symptoms, some of them get infected without showing any symptom [1]. Thus, making it more difficult to identify those who are infected and isolate them to prevent the spread of the virus.The COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) as it has become prevalent on different regions globally. Due to the risk of the presence of the virus and contaminating more people, governments have imposed aggressive restriction and lockdown measures. Organizations, businesses and service sectors, transportation and manufacturing services and other industries have seen drastic changes in their operations in cooperation to stop the spread of . While some companies have been capable of still running on full or nearly full operations through work-from-home (WFH) and remote arrangements, some organizations, unfortunately, do not hold that flexibility and mobility.Organizations that provide frontline services, services that are done with direct contact with clients and customers, and those that logically have physical contact among the operational processes, tasks and activities done by employees, have had limited or partial operations. Some of which have temporarily stopped operations [3].The food industry is one of the most affected sectors by COVID-19. The demand in food retail has certainly seen a surge. People have increased consumption and stocking up of such goods due to the isolation and quarantine orders by various governments. Food business have had to deal with this demand despite business operations and labor capacity constraints [3].This study identified the operational challenges faced by the food industry and its supply chain in providing efficient operations during the COVID-19 pandemic in five key areas: food safety, production, logistics, pricing and food systems survivability. This study also proposed methods to reduce the impacts of the virus outbreak in the food industry. The insights and proposed methods in this study will help businesses and organizations in the food industry cope with the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. II. LITERATURE REVIEWThis study made use of available related literature such as studies and articles published in journals and conference proceedings, news articles, government and organization reports and briefings.

Causal Impacts of Epidemics and Pandemics on Food Supply Chains: A Systematic Review

“…Regarding the characteristics of products/supply chains, various documents discuss product perishability, due to their high risk of waste during such disruptions. Most documents address impacts on the food supply chain as a whole; that is, they do not specify the type of food or supply chain (e.g., 1,3,12,13). Some documents focus on certain products or supply chains (e.g., agricultural products; such as grains [26,27], cereals [28], oilseeds [26], fruits [29], dairy [30,31], and fresh foods in general [7,8,11].…”

“…SC instability is another impact highlighted by some authors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, oscillation of food prices can be observed [11][12][13]49]. Price increases might be partially due to supply-side disruptions [50,51].…”

“…Absenteeism monitoring [69] Risk monitoring [103] Multiple sourcing [131] Information management and policy coordination with governments [12] Workforce adjustment Guidelines on seasonal workers and migrant workers [10,111] Temporary workers [80,114] Remote workforce training [93] Optimizing the familial or community workforce [87] Activities automation Mechanization and automation of activities with technology [8,56,79,101,132] Digital agronomic trainings and information through programs facilitated collaboratively with government [79] Computer-based statistical models [101] Greater reliance on automation [113] Health and Safety Protocols…”

“…Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic is significantly impacting FSCs [10][11][12][13][14], as breakdowns or bottlenecks in some elements have impacted other components up and down their chains [11]. These increased impacts pose significant new challenges to organizations, requiring better designed and more effective inter-organizational collaboration at national and regional levels.…”

“…This study is relevant given the challenges faced by decision-makers in the context of pandemics and epidemics, in addition to the detrimental social impact that the subject involves. This paper builds upon a research gap on the impacts of pandemics and epidemics (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic) on supply chains that are not yet sufficiently discussed [1,12]. Previous research has discussed fragmented policies for the functioning of FSCs during crisis and emergency times; however, pandemics and epidemics need attention to the development of potential integrated policies to mitigate the risks of FSCs.…”