The agri-food systems across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are continuously subject to disruptions. One of the most recent and devasting disruptions was the COVID-19 pandemic. This public health emergency affected the region’s agri-food sector, the economies of its countries, and the daily lives of its people. In this context, resilience and innovation were crucial to the survival of people, businesses, and institutions. Although resilience and innovation are not new terms, the pandemic highlighted their relevance and the need to understand them better, including their purpose and how to strengthen their capacity and implementation.
Within this framework, the IDB joined efforts with several universities and research centers to analyze the resilience and innovation in agri-food systems in the region. Our aim was accomplished by administering over a thousand surveys across 22 countries during two periods (2020 and 2021). The surveys encompassed all key actors of the agri-food systems, including agribusiness or enterprises (small, medium, and large agricultural producers, processors, logistics and distribution companies, suppliers of inputs and/or services), decision-makers, and academics. Leveraging this data, we identified and developed indicators to measure the resilience of agri-food supply chain businesses: a static indicator that measures the ability of agribusinesses to avoid business losses within each study period and a dynamic indicator focused on quantifying the ability of businesses to recover after the impact. Additionally, we evaluated the adjustments or innovations undertaken by agri-food chain businesses to ensure their continued operation during the pandemic. We present here a summary of our key results:
Regarding agribusiness resilience:
- Overall, the agribusinesses surveyed were able to adapt and recover from the disruptions caused by COVID-19. However, there was heterogeneity in how they were impacted and their adaptive resilience to the pandemic.
- The most significant reduction in revenue was observed in the agricultural production stage, followed by the logistics and distribution stage. The lowest impacts in terms of revenue were found in the suppliers of inputs and services for the sector.
- With the implementation of various adaptation measures, it was estimated that agribusinesses in the sample avoided around two-thirds of potential income losses due to the pandemic in 2020 and almost three-quarters in 2021.
- The ability to recover business activity after the impact of COVID-19 was larger in input suppliers and logistics and distribution businesses. In contrast, food processing businesses and agricultural producers experienced slower recovery rates.
In terms of innovation:
- The businesses of the LAC agri-food chains exhibited a high response to the arrival of the pandemic, implementing one or more types of innovations to continue operating. There were, however, differences according to the characteristics of agribusiness.
- Agribusinesses more severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as those in chains where products are more perishable and/or labor-intensive, in stages closer to the final consumer, or smaller, showed a greater tendency to implement innovations.
- Agribusinesses in stages downstream of primary production and those providing inputs and services were more likely to implement innovations, especially longer-term (continuous) innovations.
- Smaller agribusinesses were more likely to implement short-term minor changes (temporary innovations).
- Agribusiness’ implementation of continuous or longer-term innovations is associated with several factors, including the type of agricultural product they were related to, the stage in the chain to which they belonged, sustained external support, access to credit, and positive prospects for the company’s business conditions.
As we have seen, our agri-food systems showed the capacity to adapt and recover – with varying measures and degrees – to the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This capacity is related to characteristics of the agribusinesses and factors such as access to financing and support. If you want to learn more, we invite you to download our publications on resilience and innovation. In these, you will find, for example, the methodology used to build the resilience indicators and details about the sample and the questionnaire used to collect the information.
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Covid-19 and Innovation in Agrifood Systems of Latin America and the Caribbean
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