What challenges do the actors of the food supply chains faced with during 2020 in Hungary as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Faculty members of the Institute of Business Economics, Department of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, dr. Zsófia Jámbor and dr. Judit Nagy conducted a research on the “Effects of Covid crisis on Hungarian food supply chains”. The researchers presented the results of their study at the 21st International Scientific Conference Business Logistics in Modern Management in Osijek, Croatia last October.  

The aim of the study carried out by dr. Zsófia Jámbor and dr. Judit Nagy is to show what challenges the actors of the food supply chains faced with during 2020 in Hungary as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they were able to deal with them. The food industry plays a vital role in supplying the population and its importance has grown as a result of the epidemic. However, according to the authors’ assumption, some sub-sectors were not equally affected by the crisis: consumption shifted towards cheaper, basic foods, while demand for expensive and/or luxury products declined (e.g. chocolate). At the same time, the reorganization of final customers’ consumption and the increasing household consumption could not offset the lost sales volume due to the closure of the Hotel, Restaurant and Catering (Horeca) sector. Overall, the Hungarian food industry has successfully overcome the effects of COVID-19, its political judgement has strengthened, and the importance of the country’s ability to self-sufficiency with food has increased. In the upcoming period, domestic and European Union subsidies to support agricultural and food industry investments will also help funding this endeavour. 

The 21th Conference of Business Logistics in Modern Management where the study was presented has grown over the years into an international academic conference specialising in logistics, supply chain management and distribution issues with regional and global implications. The researchers’ participation in the 21st BLMM conference is an important milestone in their accession to the international logistics community, both in terms of networking and visibility. The annual conference, organised by EFOS (Faculty of Economics in Osijek), is attended by renowned representatives from Central and Eastern Europe, and the potential importance of cooperation with them is undeniable. The papers submitted to the conference have undergone a double-blinded review process, and the accepted ones were published in a joint conference proceedings. Previous conference volumes are indexed as conference volumes in Web of Science Conference Proceedings Citation Index (from 2015 to 2019), EconLit Full Text (from 2013 and 2014), EBSCO – Business Source UItimate and Business Source Corporate Plus (from 2016), Econpapers and IDEAS (from 2008 to 2020), Hrčak (from 2014 to 2020).