FOOD SECURITY–TRADE NEXUS IN TIMES OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Despite the increase in agri-food trade, food insecurity is still a pressing challenge in many world regions. This is an indicator of the multifaceted relationship between trade and food security. Moreover, it is not clear how the outbreak of COVID-19 affected this relation. In this context, this article explores the outbreak’s impacts on food security-trade nexus starting from an analysis of the relations between agri-food trade and the four dimensions of food security (viz. availability, access, utilization, stability), and then by exploring how the pandemic has changed this relationship. It draws upon a systematic review of documents indexed in Scopus carried out in October 2020. Results show the central role of trade in ensuring food security and highlight that international trade has been disrupted due to border closures and the indirect consequences of the pandemic containment policies imposed on the industrial business sectors all over the world. Furthermore, we highlight that the current agricultural trade framework, defined by import dependencies and structural fragility, has exacerbated the outbreak’s consequences on food security. Food-related impacts of the pandemic vary not only from a country to another – depending, among others, on the epidemiological situation – but also among socio-economic groups; under these circumstances, agri-food trade disruption has struck heavily on low- and middle-income countries. We underline the need for a more sustainable and regional model of international trade to overcome the weaknesses of the ‘business as usual’ model and ensure food security for all.