IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i7p4116-d783544.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food Supply Impacts and Solutions Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Regional Australian Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Louise Godrich

    (Centre for People, Place and Planet, Institute for Nutrition Research, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Bunbury, WA 6230, Australia)

  • Flavio Macau

    (School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

  • Katherine Kent

    (School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW 2560, Australia)

  • Johnny Lo

    (School of Science, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

  • Amanda Devine

    (Institute for Nutrition Research, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia)

Abstract

This study aimed to explore how food supply chains were impacted by COVID-19 and identify how the region could be better prepared for future crises. An online survey was completed by 107 consumers. In-depth interviews were conducted with 27 food supply stakeholders working in food production, distribution, retail, hospitality, institutions (i.e., childcare), logistics/freight and local government. Pre-COVID-19, farmer-direct distribution options and hospitality businesses comprised a substantial proportion of local food producer businesses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers favoured local food supply options, farmers collaborated, and produce usually destined for export was redirected into local markets. Critical food supply actions included keeping borders open to food freight, enhancing social capital through real-time business communication, and business flexibility. Solutions included business adaptation, for example, farmers selling produce boxes and hospitality businesses selling excess stock, COVID-safe delivery, and collaboration through digital networks. To better prepare the region for future crises, actions to support communities could include a community approach to agriculture, increasing food supply diversity, facilitating transport to aid food distribution and purchasing, and more effective messaging to discourage panic buying. Actions to support retailers could include increasing access to wholesalers through online platforms. Actions to support producers could include improving infrastructure, such as more regional distribution facilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Louise Godrich & Flavio Macau & Katherine Kent & Johnny Lo & Amanda Devine, 2022. "Food Supply Impacts and Solutions Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Regional Australian Case Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-16, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:4116-:d:783544
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4116/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4116/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jill Whelan & Lynne Millar & Colin Bell & Cherie Russell & Felicity Grainger & Steven Allender & Penelope Love, 2018. "You Can’t Find Healthy Food in the Bush: Poor Accessibility, Availability and Adequacy of Food in Rural Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, October.
    2. Mary Little & Olivia Sylvester, 2022. "Agroecological producers shortening food chains during Covid-19: opportunities and challenges in Costa Rica," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 1133-1140, September.
    3. Dawn Thilmany & Elizabeth Canales & Sarah A. Low & Kathryn Boys, 2021. "Local Food Supply Chain Dynamics and Resilience during COVID‐19," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 86-104, March.
    4. Clancy, Kate & Ruhf, Kathryn, 2010. "Is Local Enough? Some Arguments for Regional Food Systems," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 25(1), pages 1-5.
    5. Lucia A. Leone & Sheila Fleischhacker & Betsy Anderson-Steeves & Kaitlyn Harper & Megan Winkler & Elizabeth Racine & Barbara Baquero & Joel Gittelsohn, 2020. "Healthy Food Retail during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Future Directions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-14, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gaofeng Wang & Shuai Li & Zihao Zhang & Yanning Hou & Changhoon Shin, 2023. "A Visual Knowledge Map Analysis of Cross-Border Agri-Food Supply Chain Research Based on CiteSpace," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-28, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vargas, Rubén Darío Sepúlveda & Caro, María Alejandra Taborda & Doria, Deivi David Fuentes & Castañeda, Carlos Eduardo Maldonado & Calderin, Ivan Darío Sepúlveda, 2023. "Socioecological practices and community resilience strategies for sustainable agriculture in lower Sinú, Colombia," Economia agro-alimentare / Food Economy, Italian Society of Agri-food Economics/Società Italiana di Economia Agro-Alimentare (SIEA), vol. 25(1), May.
    2. Apak, Ömer Ceyhun & Gürbüz, Ahmet, 2023. "The effect of local food consumption of domestic tourists on sustainable tourism," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Catherine Nkirote Kunyanga & Morten Fibieger Byskov & Keith Hyams & Samuel Mburu & Grace Werikhe & Rawlynce Bett, 2023. "Influence of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Market Prices and Food Supply in Urban Markets in Nairobi, Kenya," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-20, January.
    4. Sylvain Charlebois & Mark Juhasz & Janet Music, 2021. "Supply Chain Responsiveness to a (Post)-Pandemic Grocery and Food Service E-Commerce Economy: An Exploratory Canadian Case Study," Businesses, MDPI, vol. 1(2), pages 1-19, July.
    5. Penelope Love & Jillian Whelan & Colin Bell & Jane McCracken, 2019. "Measuring Rural Food Environments for Local Action in Australia: A Systematic Critical Synthesis Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-21, July.
    6. Matthew J. Landry & Kim Phan & Jared T. McGuirt & Alek Ostrander & Lilian Ademu & Mia Seibold & Kathleen McCallops & Tara Tracy & Sheila E. Fleischhacker & Allison Karpyn, 2021. "USDA Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Vendor Criteria: An Examination of US Administrative Agency Variations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-21, March.
    7. Philippe Fleury & Larry Lev & Hélène Brives & Carole Chazoule & Mathieu Désolé, 2016. "Developing Mid-Tier Supply Chains (France) and Values-Based Food Supply Chains (USA): A Comparison of Motivations, Achievements, Barriers and Limitations," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-13, August.
    8. Kathryn Ruhf, 2015. "Regionalism: a New England recipe for a resilient food system," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 650-660, December.
    9. Alessandro Bonadonna & Stefano Duglio & Luigi Bollani & Giovanni Peira, 2022. "Mountain Food Products: A Cluster Analysis Based on Young Consumers’ Perceptions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-14, September.
    10. Sebastian Kretschmer & Sheena Dehm, 2021. "Sustainability Transitions in University Food Service—A Living Lab Approach of Locavore Meal Planning and Procurement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-31, June.
    11. Rachel Corry & Jessica Holt & Alexa J. Lamm & Abigail Borron, 2023. "Do You Really Want to Know? Exploring Desired Information Transparency for Local Food Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-16, December.
    12. Rosalia Stella Evola & Giovanni Peira & Erica Varese & Alessandro Bonadonna & Enrica Vesce, 2022. "Short Food Supply Chains in Europe: Scientific Research Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-20, March.
    13. Eulalia Skawińska & Romuald I. Zalewski & Joanna Wyrwa, 2023. "Students’ Food Consumption Behavior during COVID-19 Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-28, June.
    14. Ehsan Tavakoli-Hashjini & Annette Piorr & Klaus Müller & José Luis Vicente-Vicente, 2020. "Potential Bioenergy Production from Miscanthus × giganteus in Brandenburg: Producing Bioenergy and Fostering Other Ecosystem Services while Ensuring Food Self-Sufficiency in the Berlin-Brandenburg Reg," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-20, September.
    15. Philip A. Loring, 2022. "Regenerative food systems and the conservation of change," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(2), pages 701-713, June.
    16. Mukesh Kumar & Rakesh D. Raut & Mahak Sharma & Vikas Kumar Choubey & Sanjoy Kumar Paul, 2022. "Enablers for resilience and pandemic preparedness in food supply chain," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 1198-1223, December.
    17. Anne E. Lally & Alban Morina & Leah N. Vermont & Jill N. Tirabassi & Lucia A. Leone, 2022. "Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mobile Produce Market Operations: Adaptations, Barriers, and Future Directions for Increasing Food Access," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-16, September.
    18. Rosa, Franco, 2012. "Planning the Sustainable Agro-fuel Supply Chain," 2012 First Congress, June 4-5, 2012, Trento, Italy 124130, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA).
    19. Janet Music & Sylvain Charlebois & Louise Spiteri & Shannon Farrell & Alysha Griffin, 2021. "Increases in Household Food Waste in Canada as a Result of COVID-19: An Exploratory Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-11, November.
    20. Stefan Denda & Marko D. Petrović & Zlata Vuksanović-Macura & Milan M. Radovanović & Edna Ely-Ledesma, 2024. "What Are the Current Directions in the Local Marketplaces Fiscalization? The Online Media Content Analysis," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:4116-:d:783544. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.