F&B industry sees path to recovery after slump

CEBU, Philippines — The food and beverage (F&B) sector is seen to take a graceful recovery after a severe slump in the last few months.

A survey conducted by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), the export promotion arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), revealed that the fast adaption of F&B players to digitalization paved the way for the fast recovery of the sector, while the hurdles brought about by the pandemic are still here.

Companies across the F&B and sustainability sectors have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

“Digitalization boosts sales as they expect to get back on track in less than a year,” the survey result indicated.

CITEM fielded a two-week survey from May 22 to June 5 with 141 respondents composed of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to see how they are coping with the pandemic and how it can adjust plans and programs in response to their need to survive.

The CITEM survey showed that logistical challenges and drop in product and service demand affected local companies the most, while a significant number of them also noted they are having a hard time sourcing raw material.

Amid these problems, a measly 2.1 percent of the respondent MSMEs consider shutting down temporarily.

To cope with the coronavirus situation, health and sanitation are now their top priority while almost all companies are working to boost their local production, domestic sales, and financing, the same survey indicated.

It also found that interest is likewise strong in terms of export promotion effort, digitalization/process automation, and strengthening raw material sourcing.

F&B and sustainability companies adopted digitalization and market strategies including building an online management system to log and receive orders 24/7; created new essential products and offer additional services; contactless shopping, payment and delivery; and stronger marketing in the community and local marketplaces, the survey said.

They identified their top digitalization efforts which are strengthening marketing on social media platforms, increasing use of email interactions, investing on website development, building presence on e-commerce platforms, and exploring online payment schemes.

These efforts aim to generate more sales; grow client and buyer database; build and manage brand image; offer products, service, discounts and promos online; and advertise to a wider audience range.

Domestic market is now the focus of respondents. Nearly half of the local companies still want to serve the export market despite the emerging trends and challenges in a post-pandemic global market,” the survey said.

It added firms which are still interested in the export market have identified America, Europe, Middle East, Canada, and Japan which they will continue serving after Covid- 19.

Meanwhile, of the 141 survey company respondents, 36.2 percent of them are food manufacturer-direct exporters, 29.7 percent are food manufacturer-indirect exporters, 9.4 percent are retailers, while 24.7 percent belong to other nature of business.