Food supply chains: Business resilience, innovation, and adaptation

Private sector enterprises all along food supply chains must play a central role in food system resilience and transformation; the pandemic revealed some of the sector’s weaknesses and strengths that can help to build greater resilience and reach other Sustainable Development Goals. Key messages: The pandemic disrupted food supply chains through government-imposed lockdowns and restrictions, affecting labor supply, input provisioning, logistics, and distribution channels, and shifting consumer demand for food. Impacts differed by the degree of integration and modernization of food supply chains. “Transitioning†supply chains were the most vulnerable — these chains are long but still poorly integrated, face infrastructure limitations, and are dominated by SMEs that depend heavily on hired labor. Traditional supply chains also suffered, but less so being generally short and relying on family labor. Modern, integrated supply chains were better positioned to adapt and innovate. Businesses that were able to “pivot†or innovate rapidly fared well, using either their own capacity or intermediaries to expand e-platforms for supply and delivery. Ongoing trends, most notably the growth of supermarket-style retail, e-commerce, and food delivery, were accelerated by the pandemic. Recent innovations such as e-commerce offer opportunities for SMEs in food supply chains.