COVID-19 Boosts Direct Selling of Sea Food & Drink

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a blow to the Southeast Asia market. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an estimated 8% of working hours were lost in Southeast Asia and the Pacific in 2020 which is equivalent to 24 million full-time jobs.

- Tan Heng Hong

Due to loss of employment or having their pay reduced, many people turned to the food industry as a means of supplementing their income. COVID-19 has seen a significant number of consumers land in financial difficulty, as Mintel research highlights that, seven in 10 Indonesian consumers* are worried about the financial impact of COVID-19 on themselves/their family, whereas one in five Thai consumers say their financial situation is tight and they are on just making ends meet.

CORPORATES CAN GENERATE POSITIVE VIBES BY ENGAGING IN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) PROGRAMS TO TACKLE UNEMPLOYMENT. BY DOING SO, THEY CAN POTENTIALLY ATTRACT CONSUMERS WHO WANT TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH COMPANIES/BRANDS.

The financial downturn has forced many people to leverage their skills or acquire new ones to generate additional revenue streams to get them through the difficult times. According to reports, Indonesia’s leading food delivery platform GoFood recorded a 50% rise in the number of partners joining the platform in 2020 compared to 2019. Many of the new merchants are small, micro, and medium enterprises. In Thailand, the number of mobile food operators, including stalls and food trucks, doubled in thefirst10 months of 2020.

Opportunities exist for packaged food brands to harness the entrepreneurial spirits of Southeast Asians to expand their product reach, while still supporting employment.

EXPLORING NEW ROUTES TO MARKET