Coronavirus and Horticulture Business - EastFruit Survey Results

EastFruit conducted a survey assessing the potential impact of coronavirus on the produce business on the most popular Telegram channel about the markets for vegetables, fruits and berries. The survey was attended by representatives of the fruit and vegetable business from Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Tajikistan and other countries of the region. This survey is not representative, but it is statistically significant, therefore its results may be interesting for assessing the level of business preparedness for a potential crisis in the industry.

It is interesting to note that the majority of participants (61% of the respondents) believe that coronavirus will have a negative impact on the produce business. The main reason for the negative impact on the production and trade of vegetables, fruits, berries and nuts, survey participants consider a violation of logistics and border closure. This answer was chosen by slightly less than half of the respondents - 46%. Also, 16% of the survey participants believe that coronavirus will provoke a global economic crisis, which means that consumption of fruits and vegetables will decrease, trade will decrease, investments in the production and infrastructure of processing and storage of fruits and vegetables will decrease.

Moreover, the second most popular answer was the disbelief that the coronavrius is generally a problem. About 17% of respondents believe that this is some kind of far-fetched problem, even though it already has the most direct negative impact on the produce business in the world.

By the way, EastFruit decided to repeat this survey on the same channel in the event that the spread of coronavirus affects countries in the region more. For example, this morning it became known that the spread of the virus has accelerated significantly in Georgia. It is likely that these 17% of respondents will change their point of view.

About 10% of the survey participants considered that the virus would not have any noticeable effect on the produce business. But 12% of respondents were optimistic. They believe that the spread of coronavirus will lead to the desire of people to improve their health and increase immunity by consuming more fresh vegetables, fruits, berries and nuts. And perhaps they are right, because literally this week we wrote about a sharp increase in apple sales in Europe due to the spread of coronavirus.

In general, the results of this survey suggest that, in the event of a crisis in the industry, many companies will simply not be ready for this. Let's hope that it will help to draw attention to the problem and work out possible options for crisis business solutions in advance. And, at the same time, we hope for the best possible scenario.