Food: how Covid created a feast for the big guys and famine for the little ones

Findings from an in-depth study on how Covid-19 lockdowns affected food systems have been revealed by researchers from the University of the Western Cape (UWC).

They found the government response “protected and insulated commercial farming and corporate-owned businesses” at the expense of the informal sector, which plays a big role in food systems.

Small-scale farmers, fishers and traders have suffered huge business losses under Covid-19, depriving poor consumers of a crucial source of cheap, nutritious food, said researchers Ruth Hall and Marc Wegerif, from the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (Plaas) at UWC.

This happened “while large, corporate food producers and retailers have reaped the profits”, they said.

The study focused on fresh produce in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal and fish in the Western Cape. Researchers conducted 211 in-depth interviews, facilitated the production of 24 food diaries and visited 16 primary field sites.

According to the report, as much as a quarter of all food and an even greater proportion of fresh produce is bought from informal traders. 

The sector also provides livelihoods or part-livelihoods for 2.5-million small-scale and part-time farmers, 80,000 small-scale fishers and fish processors, and 750,000 street traders. 

“The small-business sector is large and crucial in providing livelihoods to millions of South Africans and needs to be recognised as such,” said Hall and Wegerif.

Also, by offering food at lower prices, informal traders free up money in consumers’ pockets so their other basic needs can be met.

The research found that “street traders, sourcing food from municipal markets and directly from farmers, sell fresh produce at prices far below supermarket prices and create more livelihoods for low-income people in the process, including in the areas of employment-intensive production and processing, as well as in the transport and retail sectors”. 

Similarly, “artisanal fishers and local fish processors and traders play a key role in coastal communities, creating livelihoods and ensuring a supply of high-protein seafood at the local level”.

This backlash for informal traders in the food system took place against a backdrop of the only sector that grew.

Agriculture expanded by 13% in the first year of Covid-19 and was the only sector to do so. The rest of the economy contracted by 7%.

However, “this positive picture masks rising inequality among the millions of people who derive their livelihoods from the production, processing, trade and sale of food and food products”. 

The researchers found that while supermarkets, food processors and commercial farms were largely able to sustain their businesses, small-scale farmers and fishers “lost access to markets as a result of a prohibition on street trade, curfews and a lack of storage and refrigeration — and also because of the collapse of the hospitality and tourism sector to which they had previously provided food”.

Added to this was that the sale of cooked food on the streets continued to be prohibited even after restaurants reopened. 

Consumers also suffered, said the researchers. “The rising cost of a household ‘food basket’ of 44 items exceeded the R350 social relief provided by the so-called ‘Covid grant’.

“In other words, depending on household size, much or all of the ‘relief’ went to cover food price increases and thus failed to benefit households struggling with income losses, as jobs and livelihoods fell away under the pandemic,” they said.

The study, funded by the Canadian government’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), is part of broader research into the impact of Covid-19 responses on food systems in Ghana, Tanzania and SA.