Since its initial outbreak in 2019, COVID-19 has continued to cause health crises and negative GDP growth throughout the world.
Agriculture involves production, harvesting, packaging, warehousing, logistics and distribution channels. Due to the perishability of agricultural products, the loss of nutrition over time and the difficulty of standardizing packaging, the management of the supply chain of such products is more complicated than that of general industrial goods.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, logistics delays, the reduction of retail channels and the short chain of agricultural products led to the rise of a stay-at-home economy in Taiwan. This new economy is based on the convenience of customers, who tend to use the Internet to purchase goods, with online and offline channels integrated to shorten the distance between consumers and stores, and consumers increasingly using e-commerce platforms such as Momo.com, PChome and Shopee.
Many consumers also use food delivery platforms such as Uber Eats and FoodPanda to order food from restaurants, rather than shopping for daily necessities or fresh vegetables and fruits.
Even though the phenomenon of short chains of agricultural products exists in pandemics, some local smallholder farmers also developed their own coping strategies.
For instance, the Lohas Farmers’ Association established the Community Supported Agriculture initiative in Taichung, in which the farmers promote ecological agriculture and agricultural fair trade.
The association hopes that multiple families in local communities will support multiple farms in a reciprocal sharing economy, rather than supporting one single farm.
The association has dispersed farmers’ sales channels from a single, large one to more expanded channels to stabilize the local agriculture during the pandemic.
All cooperative farmers’ agricultural products can be delivered within a short period from the farm to the distribution center so that members can order and pick up the goods in time.
The weekly delivery of vegetable boxes has also been offered — a potential way for smallholder farmers to cope with, or reduce the degree to which they are affected by, the pandemic.
Smallholder farmers’ groups similar to the Taichung initiative are to continue to play an important part in facilitating the short chain of agricultural products during pandemics.
Some strategies have been proposed for the future of agricultural products consumption to deal with similar difficulties caused by pandemics, including the implementation of food storage education — teaching consumers during a stay-at-home economy how to store fresh food products properly and extend their freshness — as well as a digital real-time system that provides information about the supply status of fresh foods, which could help prevent an excessive, emotional response to food security.
Hsieh Chi-ming is a distinguished professor in the international agribusiness bachelor program at National Chung Hsing University.
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