Taste of the West has issued an interim report into the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the region’s local food industry.
The report highlights the role that the sector has played in the overall food offer, particularly to the visitor economy and tourism sector.
Among a number of findings, the report highlights a 50%-90% drop overall in food sales for small manufacturers since the onset of the outbreak in March. This has devastated the sector, it says, with obvious threats to jobs in the region as a result.
While it welcomes the Government support the sector has received, it says there are still too many gaps, with individual business falling down between the various funding packages and not able to access them.
The report also provides an analysis of the likelihood of businesses getting through the next nine months and concludes that it is difficult to see how the region’s local food sector, including all manufacturers as well as cafes, pubs and restaurants will cope with a 2020 summer of ‘delicate’ trading under an ‘easing’ of restrictions, coupled with an autumn trying to play catch up in a still nervous’ marketplace before a naturally quieter winter period.
It says it is looking towards the spring of 2021 before profitable trading can resume on anything like a normal basis.
To read the full analysis, click here.
