The impact of COVID-19 on South Africa's informal food sector

1 April 2020. The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies from South Africa has recently published an news/opinion article where they evaluate the effect of COVID19 pandemic in the country's access to food. The authors state that the impact will be strong on poor people and on the informal food economy.

Full text available at: https://www.plaas.org.za/food-in-the-time-of-the-coronavirus-why-we-should-be-very-very-afraid/

This document is a work-in-progress by PLAAS researchers, as a contribution to various government and civil society conversations about what is happening with poor people’s access to food in the context of the current pandemic and specifically the immediate context of the lockdown. 

So what is happening with poor people’s access to food, and the livelihoods of 

those who supply their food?

• Street traders are locked down
• Spaza shop confusion and crackdown
• Supermarket bottlenecks
• Small-scale farmers curtailed
• Small-scale fishers are also stopping
• Farm workers at risk
• Food aid via supermarkets will reinforce exclusion