Coronavirus - Then What ?

The nation is in lockdown.

 It seems like another world but just a fortnight ago we were still going to the pub, eating out and cramming together in lifts and train carriages as we have always done. Now Britain now looks like a different country.

 Many supermarket shelves are bare, most flights have stopped, the streets are empty and we cower in our homes from an unseen virus trying to kill us.  

 Worst of all, this is just the start of the journey. 

 It’s only a couple of years since the Ambition 2030 strategy was unveiled, which aims to double the value of Scotland’s farming, fishing, food and drink industry to £30 billion over the next decade. That seems a very distant target today.

 The immediate priority is to save lives, protect the NHS and keep the nation fed but at some point we will turn the corner and then things will look very different. 

 According to Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University, London  “Coronavirus is going to take a scythe through the normality of food”.

 He predicts a switch away from the eat what we want, when we want culture as international freight traffic is compressed as a result of the great lockdown. According to Professor Lang, we will look more to resilient food chains closer to home rather than fruits from the tropics in December.

 That focus on home will also stretch to the hospitality sector. At present we have no visitors from abroad and with some airlines teetering on the verge of collapse it will be many months before people are brave enough to travel again.

 However that also applies to us at home so the staycation market is going to be key to help rebuild tourism in Scotland in 2020.

 From local foods on supermarket shelves to more of us choosing to holiday nearer home,  there is hope for the future but none of us know when that future will begin.