India’s Food Supply Chain during the Pandemic

We document the impact of India’s COVID-19 lockdown on the food supply chain. Food arrivals in wholesale markets dropped by 69% in the three weeks following the lockdown and wholesale prices rose by 8%. Six weeks after the lockdown began, volumes and prices had fully recovered. The initial food supply shock was highly correlated with early incidence of COVID-19. We provide evidence that this correlation is due more to state-level lockdown policy variation than local responses of those in the food supply chain. Finally, during the recovery phase, the correlation between the food supply disruption and COVID-19 exposure disappeared, suggesting uniform recovery.

Keywords: COVID-19, Health Pandemics, Food, Supply Chain, India

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Lowe, Matt and Nadhanael, G.V. and Roth, Benjamin, India’s Food Supply Chain during the Pandemic (July 31, 2021). Harvard Business School Entrepreneurial Management Working Paper No. 21-070, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3903329 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3903329