Challenges loomed large at start of COVID-19

No one saw COVID-19 coming, and the disruptions it has created in the produce industry were profound.

The Packer and Equitable Food Initiative are partnering to ensure that the lessons that helped agricultural businesses survive COVID-19 in the past year are widely shared within the industry to ensure its future growth and success.

Over a four- week period, The Packer will review the results of an EFI survey about lessons from COVID-19 and focus on different aspects of the industry response and adjustments. At the conclusion of the series, the results of the survey will be compiled in a white paper available for download.  Complete this form to receive the white paper.
 
The survey polled more than 50 produce operators, mostly on the supply side, about their experiences during the pandemic year of 2020.

This article looks at the two biggest challenges faced by produce operators at the start of the pandemic:

• Figuring out how to respond at the beginning of the pandemic with many unknowns and little or no government guidance or guidelines initially in place; and 
• Fluctuations in business due to changes in demand – some experienced higher demands, some lower.

No playbook

With conflicting information and diverging ideas about urgency, it was a struggle for produce operators at the start of the pandemic.
Respondents wished they had better health and safety information sooner to keep everyone safe from the beginning.
Growers were often “flying blind” to keep workers safe. Many cited changing protocols numerous times and the need to communicate and make decisions in real time.
Quotes from industry leaders about what they “wished they knew” then given what they know now:

• “I wish had known/prepared for it.” 
• “I would have loved to know how to prevent it, 100%.”
• “I wish I had known all the medical considerations ahead of time and had access to rapid COVID-19 tests.”
• “I wish we had more PPE and sanitization supplies on hand at the start.”
• “I wish we had better information from our government.”
• “I wish we knew the gravity of the pandemic; a lot of mixed communication was received early on.”
• “I wish that I could have handled the change of operations better at the beginning, which in turn would have reduced stress levels.

Lessons learned

The lessons learned from the early months of the pandemic were multiple, industry leaders said. 

Here are some of their observations, taken from completed surveys:

• “The importance of speed in implementing new procedures that affect the health and availability of team members fulfilling their jobs under difficult situations with limited data to plan against; learning what we needed to know, that we didn’t know, in the best way to protect the health and safety of our workers during the start of the pandemic.”
• “Be flexible. Understanding that you could learn each day and adapt as changes (specifically in science) arise. I made it a point to check the new updates nearly weekly to ensure I could protect my workforce the best we could. Also, understanding that even if you do everything perfect at work, people are people and you cannot control them outside of work.”

Roller coaster demand

Many produce operators mentioned the big fluctuations in business because of changes in demand. On this topic, many said that knowing what was coming, both to the good and the bad, in sales was not possible. From completed surveys:

• “I wish that I had known the level of increase in our sales caused by the pandemic because then I could have been sure to have more employees to work the store and I could have forewarned our local farmers to be ready for a huge year with crazy changes!”
• “I wish we had better demand modeling to adjust to changing freight and labor demands.”
• “Our main supplier had limited space on their trucks for delivery to our stores. Had we known this was going to be an issue, we could have made arrangements with other suppliers to carry their items until the load restrictions were lifted.”

Even with all the unexpected shocks, industry leaders said they were surprised how quickly the produce supply chain was able to increase volumes to meet the increased demands of shoppers.

Next: 

For the May 10 issue

What worked during the pandemic? With no guidebook available to produce companies to deal with the unimaginable challenges of COVID-19, the Packer/EFI survey results look at the importance of collaboration, relationships and human capital in forming company responses.