An Analysis of the COVID-19 and rice-based food security in Asia

Jean Balié, Harold Glenn Valera () and Valerien Pede

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper examines the main channels through which the COVID-19 health crisis could affect the rice-based food security in Asia. We highlight three major channels that require monitoring in the medium term: (i) shortage and/or rising labor cost, especially in low-mechanization countries, (ii) logistics, and (iii) capital flow or shortage of liquidity to the agricultural sector. We also document that the rice market fundamentals were robust, at least at the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis. However, we argue that the COVID-19 health crisis could impact food access, and more particularly rice demand, mainly because: the traditional distribution and logistics channels have been disrupted; employment has declined, and incomes have been suppressed; and food prices have already been negatively impacted in many countries.

Keywords: COVID-19; food security; economic slowdown; rice export ban; rice prices; Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-04
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/123690/1/MPRA_paper_123690.pdf original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:123690

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().