When a two-week community quarantine was imposed in March to control the spread of COVID-19 in the country, panic buying, goods hoarding and supermarkets with empty shelves dominated the news. Food security and safety immediately became top concerns, especially with transport restrictions directly affecting the delivery, supply, price and quality of goods.
Food producers all over the country were highly affected by strict transport restrictions: Farmers in Quezon province sold their produce at lower prices because they could not bring them to other towns to sell while fisherfolk in Palawan lost income due to decreasing demand for seafood and inability to sell their catch. With the continuous transport disruptions hampering trading, delivery of summer fruits to high-demand areas that farmers depend on for mid-year profit was also compromised, as was the supply of other key food products needed for daily consumption. The reimplementation of the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) in Greater Manila area in August translated into a decline in demand for fresh produce[1] with additional major consumers of fresh goods such as restaurants and hotels closed, which in turn meant a drop in the income of farmers slowly beginning to recover from the impact of the earlier quarantine restrictions. Adding to these concerns is the question of how food quality can be maintained given the long delays in the transport of fresh goods.
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