COVID-19 Impact on Activity for Smaller Agricultural Processing and Marketing Firms: May 17-23, 2020, Versus June 21-27, 2020

Analyzed here are responses to a U.S. Census Bureau survey of U.S. businesses to provide a snapshot regarding the changing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on business activity. The analysis focused on small agricultural processing and marketing firms. The small business pulse survey is being conducted for nonfarm, single-location employment businesses with at least one but less than 500 employers and with annual receipts of at least $1,000. The sampled businesses include all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. While the survey has been conducted on a weekly basis since April 26 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020), the emphasis here is on data originally analyzed in Hughes (2020) for the week of May 17-23, 2020, versus data for the week of June 21-27, 2020 (the latter being the most recently reported data at the time of this publication). While the survey asked several questions, all reported values are for a single question: “Overall, how has this business been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?” As in the earlier study, the discussion is limited to sectors that process or market agricultural products in either the food (e.g., food manufacturers or grocery stores) or nonfood (e.g., textile mills or paper manufacturers) areas. For comparison, the impact across all surveyed businesses for both periods is also reported. This document is organized as follows. First, the June 21-27 survey results are analyzed with the emphasis on how sectors involved in processing or marketing agricultural products compare to survey results reported across all U.S. small businesses. Second, the impact of COVID-19 on business activities for 11 sectors examined in May 17-23, 2020, versus June 17-23, 2020, are compared. Third, conclusions are drawn.