Impact of COVID-19 on Consumption of Fish and Other Meats in NE Region of India

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented stresses on food supply chain in the country, with bottlenecks in processing, transportation and logistics, as well as momentous shifts in consumption pattern and demand for fish and other meat. In this study, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on consumption pattern of fish, chicken, egg, mutton, beef and pork, market availability and as well as prices in North Eastern Region of India was analysed in this study. The study based on primary data collected through online survey method for which a questionnaire framed in Google Form. The sample comprises of total 104 respondents. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test for repeated measure differences between before COVID-19 and during COVID-19 levels of consumption of fish and other non vegetarian food items and quality of fishes supplied during two periods were analysed. It was found that the reduction in consumption of fishes, chicken and beef, during COVID-19 pandemic, were statistically significant. Whereas, the Wilcoxon signed rank test statistics for mutton and pork turned out to be insignificant. During COVID-19 the consumption of local fishes increased due non availability and distortion of fish supply chain. The quality of fishes in terms of freshness, size and odour were also impacted. Due poor availability of fishes, prices of fish increased during COVID-19. The increase in fish prices and poor availability of fishes resulted to shift in purchase of processed fish products in the North Eastern Region in India. The disruption in transportation, logistics, lockdown, etc during COVID-19 impacted trade of fishes as well as its consumption in the region. Hence, efforts for increasing of local supply of fishes as well as the development of resilient supply chain with sufficient storage facilities is needed to cope up under such unprecedented situation.