In this paper, I explore the economic activities of the food processing industry during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. One of the key lessons from food processing and related industries is that without being designated as an essential service and targeted stimulus packages, the food industry could have fallen victim to the COVID-19 crisis. Although the social and economic impacts of the interventions are not clear, being designated as an essential service was likely far more important to the food industry than the targeted stimulus packages. The pandemic and shutdown orders had a considerable production reallocation effect. Some processors have seen temporary closure and reduced capacity utilization. On the upside, disruptions in the food processing sector have not been as severe as in non-essential sectors. The food processing sector has proven to be relatively stable during the pandemic – food was still processed and delivered to consumers and food price increases were minimal in most cases given the scale of the shock. Moving forward, because COVID-19 is a global crisis, internationally targeted and coordinated efforts to tackle the virus could place the industry on a strong trajectory towards economic recovery and growth.

中文翻译：

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加拿大的COVID-19和食品加工

在本文中，我探讨了 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行期间食品加工业的经济活动。食品加工和相关行业的主要教训之一是，如果不被指定为基本服务和有针对性的刺激计划，食品行业可能会成为 COVID-19 危机的受害者。尽管干预措施的社会和经济影响尚不清楚，但对食品行业而言，被指定为一项基本服务可能比有针对性的刺激计划重要得多。大流行和停工令对生产重新分配产生了相当大的影响。一些处理器已经暂时关闭并降低了产能利用率。从好的方面来说，食品加工行业的中断没有非必需行业那么严重。事实证明，在大流行期间，食品加工行业相对稳定——食品仍在加工并交付给消费者，鉴于冲击的规模，在大多数情况下食品价格上涨幅度很小。展望未来，由于 COVID-19 是一场全球危机，针对该病毒的国际针对性和协调努力可能会使该行业走上经济复苏和增长的强劲轨道。