Substantial drop in beer and chips consumption
Coronavirus hits the agricultural sector Hospitality and food service businesses are major customers of the agricultural sector. It is precisely these two sectors that were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic last year. What are the consequences and is there any prospect of recovery?
The sale of chips - or fries for some - was on the rise for years. That was until COVID-19 broke out last year. Because almost all (major) events were cancelled and restaurants had to close their doors, the impact in the Netherlands, where 80 percent of all chips are eaten outside the home, was enormous. This filtered through to the prices that potato growers received for their harvests. Aviko Potato paid an average of between €33.10 and €38.10 per tonne of potatoes. By comparison, in 2019 the prices were still somewhere between €125.75 and €135.75. simply say we need much less acreage. There is a need for raw material, we just don’t know how much and when.”
“The world of potatoes is being confronted with unprecedented falls in demand”
Decline in turnover Farmers who supply wheat and other raw materials to breweries also suffered a significant drop in sales and turnover due to the coronavirus crisis. In 2020, total beer sales fell by 14 percent compared to the previous year. In the catering and event sector, the decline was even greater: 89 percent. Home consumption increased by 5 percent, nowhere near enough to avoid sales dropping by nearly two million hectolitres compared to 2019.
“Unfortunately a historical low,” as André Broeze, chairman of Aviko’s potato growers’ committee, puts it. He was reluctant to say too much about the current situation, but spoke out earlier on Aviko’s website: “The world of potatoes is being confronted with unprecedented falls in demand.” The sector now has to perform a difficult balancing act, especially since it is yet unclear how the situation will develop in the coming period. “This uncertainty puts all those involved in a precarious position, both growers and industry. It goes too far to
The Dutch Brewers Association expects the decline to extend well into 2021. This was already apparent in the first month of the new year. Total beer sales fell by more than 30 percent in January compared to the same month a year earlier. It was even harsher for the hospitality industry, where sales plummeted by 92 percent. “The enormous drop in beer sales in the hotel and catering industry shows once again the severity of the COVID measures on the sector as a whole”, says Lucie Wigboldus, director of the Dutch Brewers Association. She pleaded early this year for the quick reopening of restaurants and cafés, etc. But for beer brewers, sellers and consumers there are some glimmers of light. Despite the pandemic, the Netherlands saw 71 new breweries emerge in 2020.
In 2020, the Central Bureau of Statistics calculated that the turnover in the agricultural sector fell by 6 per cent compared to 2019. The sector received a total of 340 million euros in COVID-19 subsidies. Without those subsidies, the drop in income would have been around 11 percent.
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