Workshop on Food Supply Chains in the Informal Sector

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the extensive worsening of food insecurity worldwide and threatens to create long-term malnutrition and negative health consequences. One major threat is the disruption of informal food chains and the limited efforts to-date of leveraging their resilience capacity (National Library of Medicine, 2020).

Food supply chains in the informal sector play an important role in complementing formal-sector supply chains. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened food insecurity, especially in the producer-driven informal sector, compounding food insecurity issues worldwide and increasing health risks. Developing countries face difficulties in food safety and quality control in informal food chains due to a lack of information and skills, limited resources, and weak cooperative work systems.

This workshop will examine the benefits and potential of informal food chains, review case studies of safety and quality control in informal food supply, and analyze opportunities to improve informal food supply chains in APO members.

For more details please click on PN.