India’s Food Supply Chain during the Pandemic

49 Pages Posted: 13 Aug 2021

See all articles by Matt Lowe

Matt Lowe

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Vancouver School of Economics

G.V. Nadhanael

Government of India - Reserve Bank of India

Benjamin Roth

Harvard University - Business School (HBS)

Date Written: July 31, 2021

Abstract

We document the impact of India’s COVID-19 lockdown on the food supply chain. Food arrivals in wholesale markets dropped by 69% in the three weeks following the lockdown and wholesale prices rose by 8%. Six weeks after the lockdown began, volumes and prices had fully recovered. The initial food supply shock was highly correlated with early incidence of COVID-19. We provide evidence that this correlation is due more to state-level lockdown policy variation than local responses of those in the food supply chain. Finally, during the recovery phase, the correlation between the food supply disruption and COVID-19 exposure disappeared, suggesting uniform recovery.

Keywords: COVID-19, Health Pandemics, Food, Supply Chain, India

Suggested Citation

Lowe, Matt and Nadhanael, G.V. and Roth, Benjamin, India’s Food Supply Chain during the Pandemic (July 31, 2021). Harvard Business School Entrepreneurial Management Working Paper No. 21-070, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3903329 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3903329

Matt Lowe

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Vancouver School of Economics ( email )

997-1873 East Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1
Canada

G.V. Nadhanael

Government of India - Reserve Bank of India ( email )

Bakery Junction Service Road
Vazhuthacaud
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695033
India

Benjamin Roth (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Business School (HBS) ( email )

Soldiers Field Road
Morgan 270C
Boston, MA 02163
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
123
Abstract Views
734
Rank
412,003
PlumX Metrics