The supply chain (SC) profoundly impacts businesses and all service recipients and consumers and is among the global economy’s key constituents. Disasters frequently cause SC disruptions, which have a detrimental impact on everyone’s experience. This trend was evident in major disruptions to the vegetable SC of Bangladesh caused by the catastrophic epidemiological situation created by COVID-19. The pandemic and the related barriers to free travel have affected the “Deliver” part of the SC for vegetables.
The outbreak of the aforementioned infection created severe hindrances to the operation of the food industry of Bangladesh, affecting farmers involved in growing vegetables. In 2020, certain limitations on movement were imposed due to the lockdown. Middleman traders like bepari could not send the vegetables to their regular markets (Alam & Khatun, 2021). Due to that, the number of traders purchasing farmers’ production dropped rapidly, causing multiple vegetables in the gourd family to become cheaper (Alam & Khatun, 2021). Farmers suffered a loss as a result of having to sell their goods to customers directly at local markets.
It is clear that the “Deliver” component of the vegetable SC is the focus of this SC breakdown. Because of inter-country movement restrictions, foreign traders had no opportunity to visit Bangladesh, purchase goods from local vegetable producers, and distribute them across distant markets and internationally. As a result, the intricate delivery component of the SC could not function correctly. Based on that, the disease pandemic had a delivery effect on SC operation.
Conclusively, the disease pandemic disrupted the vegetable SC, hindering the “Deliver” aspect of the SC. The biggest problem was that traders could not access the region to buy crops from growers and ship them to markets. The vegetable producers’ income levels have experienced an unprecedented drop due to product transportation challenges, so their own future and financial stability are concerning.
Reference
Alam, G. M. M., & Khatun, M. N. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on vegetable supply chain and food security: Empirical evidence from Bangladesh. PLOS ONE, 16(3), e0248120. Web.