Safeguarding supply: FoodDrinkEurope urges action to avoid serious disruptions

25 Mar 2020 --- The European food and beverage industry is under mounting pressure to ensure consumers have access to enough safe, affordable and quality products during the coronavirus pandemic. FoodDrinkEurope has identified five urgent actions to help ease food supply pressure in these troubling times and is urging the European Commission to take action now. The recommendations include greater support for the food sector workforce, recognizing the entire food supply chain as “essential,” unblocking transport bottlenecks, supporting struggling businesses and facilitating global trade. 

“If we act on these five areas now, we believe we can avoid serious disruptions to food and drink supplies to consumers and safeguard our jobs and businesses,” FoodDrinkEurope Director General Mella Frewen explains. 

Stacked shelves and full fridges
The industry is made up of 4.7 million workers and 294,000 businesses of all sizes and from all corners of Europe. “It is our collective goal to make sure that shelves are stacked and fridges are full. However, this is becoming increasingly difficult. We have, therefore, identified five pressure points putting a particular strain on the food supply chain,” explains Frewen. 

“If we act on these five areas now, we believe we can avoid serious disruptions to food and drink supplies to consumers and safeguard our jobs and businesses.” 

FoodDrinkEurope has written to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and is calling on the Commission, in close coordination with EU Member States, to take urgent action on these five points: 

Support the food sector workforce: The food and beverage manufacturing industry relies on a dedicated workforce, including factory workers, fork-lift and lorry drivers and many more, to produce and transport food to destination markets. However, with many of the workforce off sick, following guidance to stay at home, facing travel restrictions and quarantine at borders, or looking after children, there is a serious risk of labor shortages. Given their essential role to maintain food security in Europe, FDE urges the Commission to provide EU guidelines to Members States to establish harmonized protocols for food sector workers to continue their work safely, where they are fit and able, just as workers in the medical sector have also been given special dispensations and privileges. 

Recognize the entire food supply chain as “essential”: FDE welcomes the Commission’s March 16 statement announcing guidelines to Member States on border management measures, and recognizing food as an “essential service.” However, it points out that different Member States have different interpretations of what may constitute an “essential” sector and the measures to keep the food value chain in full operation. Food and beverage products, ingredients, packaging and packaging materials (which among other things are essential for food safety and transportation), feed and pet food, need to be regarded as essential by all EU Member States, to avoid delays at borders. FDE urges the Commission to impress on all Member States the essential importance of the food sector and the special measures needed to keep the food supply chain functioning in all of its aspects. 

Unblock transport bottlenecks: The food supply chain relies on the ability to move ingredients and finished products rapidly across borders in order to meet consumer demand. However, FDE members are reporting long delays at borders as lorries are either delayed or prevented from crossing borders entirely. In addition, companies are starting to receive requests to provide delivery lorries with an official company document stating that the lorry contents are classified as an ‘essential sector’ of vital importance or asking for “certificates.” No such standardized paperwork exists across the EU, leading to yet more delays. There are further concerns that goods blocked at borders will go to waste without emergency measures to re-distribute or donate them. 

FDE requests that the Commission follow-up on the measures set out in the Informal Transport Council of March 18, including strongly encouraging Member States to implement the priority “green lanes” for food sector lorries, and waiving existing weekend bans. 

FDE strongly advises the harmonization of border crossing protocols across the EU in order to maintain a fully functioning Single Market and to avoid transport bottlenecks. Further consideration should be given to measures to re-distribute food which cannot reach its intended market, it also notes. 

Support struggling businesses: Ninety-nine percent of the EU’s food and beverage businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The coronavirus pandemic is threatening the continued existence of many of these businesses, FDE says. One major impact on food and drink manufacturers has been the closure of large segments of the foodservice sector – including restaurants, hotels, bars and cafeterias. Food business operators have reported a significant fall in demand along with general delays in their supply chains.

FDE urges the Commission, in collaboration with Member States, to develop comprehensive emergency measures for the food sector, to minimize the financial impact on food businesses, maintain jobs and to help rebuild the economic sustainability of the sector over the long term. It also counts on the Commission to facilitate a flexible and pragmatic regulatory environment that supports vulnerable businesses in these times of crisis. For instance, flexibility around the implementation of state aid rules and certain fiscal support could be crucial to cope with impact in the Member States, it notes. 

Facilitate global trade: As a major importer and exporter of agri-food products, the EU food and drink industry plays a major part in bringing food and drink to consumers worldwide. Since the coronavirus outbreak, FDE says its members have reported declining sales, particularly in China and the wider Asia region. Uncertainty is a major problem for exporters. Some of them have not been able to ship merchandise for two months, while others are experiencing noticeable delays from their usual clients. The European food and drink industry is also reliant on ingredients imported from third countries to manufacture products – these supply chains are also severely disrupted. FDE asks the Commission to hold bilateral talks with Europe's major trade partners to facilitate trade in food and drink products and essential ingredients and call for international collaboration to ensure that products can continue to move globally. 

Edited by Gaynor Selby