Impact Of The Pandemic On The German Agri-Food Sector And The Measures Undertaken To Increase Its Resilience

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany in early 2020 and the following restrictive measures undertaken by the national authorities to protect the population and limit the spread of the virus have had a major negative impact on the overall activity of the federal economy. However, an increased pressure has been felt especially in the agro-food sector which has facedunprecedented risks and challenges caused by the pandemic crisis, as any potential temporarycessation of activity could have jeopardized the proper functioning of the food supply chains. At the same time, the traditional German labour shortage in agriculture and the overlap of the first epidemiological wave with the spring agricultural campaign are two additional factors in enhancing the risk of coronavirus on the German agro-food system. In this context, our article aims, on the one hand, to analyse the real consequences of the pandemic in the primary sector and, on the other hand, to highlight the role and importance of measures undertaken by the German government to mitigate the effects of the health crisis and to increase the resilience and sustainability of national agriculture.