The Impact of Covid-19 on the Food Industry

COVID has largely affected organizations and individuals. The current study explores the effect of covid on food industries in the Middle East. We have found that during the pandemic, people tend to choose eating home-cooked meals instead of ordering from restaurants as they think it is “unsafe” to do so. This resulted in an improvement in their cooking skills. Additionally, it is clear that the availability of essential foodstuff hasn't been Artículos de Investigación The Impact of Covid-19 on the Food Industry1 El impacto de Covid-19 en la industria alimentaria Alyazyah Alhefeiti 2 201814207@ustf.ac.ae Ajman University, United Arab Emirates, Emiratos Árabes Unidos Hessa Aldhanhani 3 University of Science and Technology of Fujairah,, Emiratos Árabes Unidos Reem Almatrooshi 4 201814207@ustf.ac.ae University of Science and Technology of Fujairah, Emiratos Árabes Unidos Ver todos los autores Revista Estrategia Organizacional Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia, Colombia ISSN: 2339-3866 ISSN-e: 2539-2786 Periodicity: Semestral vol. 10, no. 2, 2021 revista.ecacen@unad.edu.co Received: 02 January 2020 Revised: 01 April 2021 Accepted: 01 April 2021 URL: http://portal.amelica.org/ameli/jatsRepo/133/1332250006/index.html Corresponding author: 201814207@ustf.ac.ae This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International. Abstract: COVID has largely affected organizations and individuals. The current study explores the effect of covid on food industries in the Middle East. We have found that during the pandemic, people tend to choose eating home-cooked meals instead of ordering from restaurants as they think it is “unsafe” to do so. This resulted in an improvement in their cooking skills. Additionally, it is clear that the availability of essential foodstuff hasn't been majorly affected by the outbreak. Our observations strongly support the fact that people are spending more money on groceries than they used to before the outbreak, and the majority prefers to do so through applications and websites that offer delivery of groceries. This study indicates a development of new digital markets that support the integration of multiple food channels and easy food ordering systems.