Plummeting Demand Due to The CoronaVirus Pandemic Shakes the Foundations of The Meat Industry

27 March 2020

The CoronaVirus COVID-19 pandemic is ruling all the headlines right now. What started from a small city in China, called Wuhan, reportedly originating from the Huanan seafood market has spread all over the world, to 196 countries, infecting about 5.4 lakh+ people and claiming the lives of 1.2 lakh+ people. Governments around the world have been implementing strict rules and measures to curb the SARS CoV -2 virus. From a permanent ban on wildlife trade in China (allegedly worth 74 billion dollars), to a complete lockdown in many countries including our very own India, with people strictly following the protocol of self-isolation, the efforts have been immense. But the question still remains, are all these efforts enough to contain this highly contagious virus, and restore normalcy in the world?

Like any other ‘viral’ news, there are bound to be cases of ‘fake news’, especially with no dearth of the ‘modes of transmission’ like numerous social media and instant messaging platforms. One such piece of ‘fake news’, that despite having been rubbished by leading experts from around the world has still stuck with people. And that is the potential spread of covid-19 through the meat of farm animals. An obvious reason would be the reported zoonotic origins of the disease - from the breeding and consumption of wild animals like bats and pangolins in China, from where the virus seems to have jumped to humans. Other reasons include the source of all similar disease outbreaks like SARS, MERS, Swine flu, Avian Influenza and more, all having their origins in animals, and not merely animals existing on their own, but being specifically bred for consumption.
“The bats now appear to be both culprit and victim in this mystery: they are the carriers of the SARS virus, but the virus is probably only passed to humans through intermediate hosts when bats are captured and brought to market,” reads a berkeley report on the origins of the SARS virus lying in fruit bats.

Maneka Gandhi, BJP MP and People for Animals (PFA) Chairperson said,”We know this (covid-19) started from eating wild animals but which animal isn’t wild?”

Amidst all this information being circulated in the public domain, the meat and poultry industry has suffered huge losses. Some cities of India including Lucknow imposed bans on the sale of meat and fish being cooked or served in the open. 
A report by New Indian Express, earlier this month, cited losses of a whopping Rs. 400 cr incurred by the poultry industry alone, sale of fishes have also been slashed by around 30 to 40 per cent.
In another Indian Express report, a hatchery unit that “produced” 5.4 lakh, day-old chicks per month predicted less than 2 lakh for March 2020 as they incurred losses of Rs. 10 crore in February. The owner, Mr. Patil, of said Rs. 100-crore turnover private limited company (hatchery) in Maharashtra, quoted, “The only way not to sink further is to produce less.”

The owner of another leading hatchery in Hyderabad said in another Indian Express report, “The price of chicken meat is going down more than the consumption rates as the backlog is increasing and the farmgate price of eggs have come down from  Rs.4.5 to Rs. 3 per piece and the price of chicken meat has come down from Rs. 80 per kg to Rs. 40 per kg.”

In a TOI Agra report, a meat seller reported a sharp 40% decline in sales. A resident was quoted saying, “I have always been a non-vegetarian. However, after reading the reactions of celebrities avoiding non-vegetarian foods, following the coronavirus scare, I have decided to stop for some time.”

“As an industry, we have lost a business of close to Rs 1,500 crore with exports to Vietnam –which largely caters to the Chinese market --not moving. China market access remains extremely crucial for us,” said Fauzan Alavi, spokesperson for All-India Meat & Livestock Exporters Association.

“In February our company was able to only export 70 containers of 28 tonne each compared to 240 containers in the same period of the previous year. There are no new orders and we are concerned of the shipments on way, said Mr. Alavi who is the director at Allanasons, the largest buffalo meat exporter of the country.
In the same report, he was quoted as saying that in addition to south-east asian nations, the demand from middle-eastern and european countries is also lowering.

And we cannot forget to mention that the largest consumers of meat around the world- Chinese- are also reportedly including more vegetaian and vegan foods in their diets!

Back home in india, the CEO of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, Mr. Pawan Aggarwal categorically denied any links between the novel coronavirus and the meat industry but wants to leverage the current situation to “improve the hygiene and sanitation efficiency in meat and fish markets.”

Also, some Indian animal rights organisations, namely Humane Society International (HSI/India), Mercy for Animals India, Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO), People for Animals and the Ahimsa Trust have written to the Health Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan to take immediate and urgent steps against markets that do not follow food safety guidelines and shut illegal meat and pet shops to stop new diseases like covid-19 to emerge and threaten the lives of people, the world over.
"Increase in industrial slaughter and factory farming of animals, unchecked wildlife trade and crowding of various species of animals in close confinement has been an invitation to deadly epidemics," the letter read.

This report about zoonotic diseases being at the root of the world's worst epidemics offers some much-needed, missing perspective.

With such a sharp decline in meat sales, despite repeated assurances by authorities, maybe the current measures to safeguard the world populace need to be rethought, not only with respect to controlling the current pandemic to only brush it under the carpet but also to prevent future disease outbreaks. It also raises a pertinent question about the currently established public health and diet standards set by leading health organisations around the world and whether they need to change.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
 

Read: The Chinese are Gradually Shifting to Vegetarian and Vegan Foods
Read More: Dr. Nandita Shah of SHARAN India on CoronaVirus, Immunity,  Healing the Planet