COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020 by the WHO (World
Health Organization), and at the beginning of April 2022, it had infected
approximately 490.7 million people, with at least 6.17 million deaths. The pandemic
has challenged food security, agriculture, and fresh food chains. Research on the
analysis of agri-food supply chains during COVID-19 indicates a more significant
impact on small suppliers of these chains, especially the shorter chains, which are
those with few links. In this context, this work analyzes the effects of COVID-19 on
fresh food chains. Thus, a case study is developed in a producer organization in
Rio de Janeiro. This study covers a scoping review that identifies in the literature
the main impacts and policies of the pandemic in this chain. Then, the results are
evaluated through a survey in the organization to assess whether the variables
found in the literature match the variables identified by the survey respondents,
who are small producers in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Finally, the problem is
modeled through a system dynamics simulation. The results showed that the
organization s supply chain is sensitive to impact variables such as increased
production cost and non-delivery of products. As increasing production cost and
not delivering products, the sales rate is negatively impacted. The investment
policy in logistics shows that the sales rate is positively impacted when investment
increases.
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