Solutions to overcome supply chain problem in food industry during COVID-19 pandemic

Supply chain problem in food industry during COVID-19 pandemic

Covid19 pandemic as affected the food supply industry form the field to the consumer of the product. Compared to other industry food industry is very important because it produces product that are essential for the survival of daily life. Food industry are facing problems like drop of the income and not able to produce up to the demand of the retailers, quality and safety, but during the covid-19 pandemic the food industry in facing the major problem such as temporary shutdown of the business. Inefficient Inventory management which leads to the spoilage of the product. The shutdown of food industry will lead to starving and courses death and malnutrition.

As the food supply chain is made up of six major stages such as: sourcing raw material, production, processing, packing, storage and distribution. If there is any issue in one of these stage it will affect the complete food chain supply, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic all the stages in the food supply chain are affected.

Challenges faced by food industry

1.    Safety and quality maintenance: As chances for the spread of covid19 in food products is very high it is very important for companies to increase the safety measures in the production.

Solution: to increase the safety of the product it is important to maintain track of employees and If the companies are not able to track the employee’s transportation, the industry should create a proper planning for the workers to work in shifts and workers should be provided flexible work days, so that it will be easy to keep track of the employees, during the production the workers should be provided with all kind of safety products such as mask, gloves etc.

2.    Efficient inventory management: this is one of the major problems in supply chain management during the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for the food products difficult to track. If the manufacturing is higher than the required level then it will lead to the wastage. If the manufacturing is lesser then the demand then it will it courses starvation, malnutrition and death

Solution: companies in the food industry as to find the accurate demand for the product, accurate demand forecasting will help to maximize the efficiency and decrease the risk. It is important to set a analytical team for understanding the demand for the product.

3.    Lack labors: in countries like India the supply chain of food products is majorly depending upon the migrant labors, due to lockdown there is no availability of workers. It affects the stages of the food supply chain.

Solution: as the migrant workers are not able to come for work. Then the company should outsource the workers and similar industry, else should make the workers to work for extra sift.

4.    Labour health care maintained: it is important to keep the workers and employees healthy as it is a food industry during the supply of the product there is a chances for the spread of the COVID-19. If the employees are of food industry is affected with the COVID-19

Then other workers and who produces the product and the consumers also will get affected.

Solution: all the employees and production, distribution, sales etc. should have done the COVID-19 test and all the workers should be divided into bath and made to work is shift for 15 days for 1 batch and 2^nd batch for other 15 days in a month so it will avoid the social contact between many workers.

Conclusion: during the pandemic, the flow of food supply is one of the most important. the strategies provided will help reduces the food crisis and reduce the negative impact on economy of the nation, as a result everyone should understand the efficient usage of the food products, the supply chain management should be flexible enough to respond to the change.