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E-commerce blast to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19 crisis on rural agriproduct trade

University of Bonn, Fac. of Agriculture, Germany

Abstract

Apart from being a global health concern, the COVID-19 pandemic is having major consequences on the rural agriproduct trade in the developing regions of the world. A systematic review has been conducted to delineate whether E-commerce (Electronic Commerce) mitigate the negative effect of COVID-19 on agribusiness sectors and the necessary adjustments needed to make the E-commerce platform emerge in the aspect of rural development focused on developing countries. For the review, we used the keywords COVID 19, Developing Countries, E-commerce, Food Security, and Rural agriproduct trade were used to search research articles in the search engines Science Direct, Google Scholar and Web of Science. 105 articles were initially selected and 57 were screened covering 15 countries. The majority of the literature covered the period of COVID 19 pandemic period (2019-2022), reflecting the influence of COVID - 19 on agriproduct trade and coping mechanisms, most notably through the usage of E-commerce in the agricultural sector, in a variety of developing nations. The evidence from the articles reviewed shows that E-commerce platforms have started to emerge as a promising way to trade farm produce where there are no middlemen involved and web-based relationships are formed, and E-commerce further has the potential to make the farmer more resilient to the adverse effects of COVID 19. The COVID-19 pandemic is still unfolding around the world, it is too early to assess the full impacts of Ecommerce in the food sector. Even so, most developing countries have taken steps to ensure a continuous supply of agriproducts as efficiently as possible under these challenging circumstances. Despite the initial shocks of the pandemic, E-commerce platforms are being adopted by these countries at increasing rates. Such digital transformations in the developing world would not have been possible unless otherwise there is an unavoidable precursor as the Pandemic. Adhering to and further developing E-commerce platforms will eventually boost the economic trade specifically the agriproduct trade among developing countries and beyond.

Keywords: COVID 19, developing countries, E-commerce, food security, rural agriproduct trade

Contact Address: Ashara Nijamdeen, University of Bonn, Fac. of Agriculture, Bonn, Germany, e-mail: s7fathenuni-bonn.de