Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
GLOBAL INSIGHT : Lessons to learn from COVID -19 response in Southern Africa
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis has triggered an uncoordinated global response, with various countries implementing different measures to address the pandemic.
However, some trends and indications provide fundamental insights that can help to anticipate likely outcomes. These include experiences in other parts of the world, where countries are already opening up their economies, as well as evolving trends in South Africa’s national markets.
In the US, for example, farmers have been forced to discard or destroy large volumes of commodities such as milk, eggs and vegetables.
This resulted in some food shortages in supermarkets, which are partly due to suppliers to the industrial and hospitality industries not being able to easily switch from bulk packaged products to retail consumer units that can be supplied to supermarkets for household consumption. These suppliers also do not have pre-established supply chain relationships with distributors.
In Zambia, formal supply chains account for between 25% to 35% of the food system, and informal supply chains for between 65% and 75%. A partial lockdown has disrupted the formal supply chain through the closure of the hospitality industry, but informal supply chains have remained relatively intact.
In Malawi, informal supply chains account for as much as 90% of the country’s food volumes. The formal food system (restaurants, hotels, schools and supermarkets) take up 10% of the volumes within the food system.
Malawi is also under a partial lockdown, and a full lockdown is anticipated. Civil society has challenged the government on the latter, which has brought uncertainty that has led to panic-buying and shortages of imported and processed food. At a household consumer level, Malawians are less reliant on the formal food system, as they source most of their food from local informal markets, and cook-at-home meals rather than restaurants and take-outs. In Zimbabwe, informal supply chains also account for about 90% of the country’s food markets, and these have remained fairly functional. However, there are still disruptions due to roadblocks that have stymied the flow of fresh produce from farms to urban markets. The informal supply chain is adapting to the lockdown by creating new marketing channels that supply directly into communities.
South African has gone through similar “learn-as-you-go” scenarios that have also led to a level of uncertainty. The Disaster Management Act regulations have had to be amended to incorporate public concerns around livelihoods and food security, particularly within the more vulnerable parts of the community.
Large parts of the informal food systems had been omitted from the regulations amid fears that policing and enforcing an unregulated part of the food system would pose a serious public health risk. Just like in other parts of the region, humanitarian and livelihood concerns seemed to take precedence over initial public health concerns, and this allowed the informal food systems to operate virtually uninterrupted.
TRADING DISRUPTIONS
However, significant parts of South Africa’s formal supply chains underwent some form of disruption, while others such as the hospitality industry, as well as schools and colleges effectively shut down.
The various regional experiences suggest that informal food systems respond better to these pandemics than advanced formal commercial food systems.
The circumstances presented by the pandemic challenges conventional wisdom and presents a conclusion that is both mind-boggling and somewhat selfcontradictory. However, the conclusion only holds if the pandemic remains at relatively low levels in sub-Saharan African.
It is unlikely that informal supply chains would maintain their resilience if the scale of the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa matches that of Europe and the US. More stringent enforcement of COVID-19 regulations would inevitably put informal supply chains under intense pressure.