Impacts of Covid 19 on MSMEs Food Processing Units in Indian State of Kerala: A Case Study

Abstract

The COVID 19 virus epidemic has produced another era on the planet while people sort out the outcomes in various parts of everyday life. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all the sectors of the economy, especially the Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. The epidemic has created many challenges and an impact on production, supply chain, liquidity, demand, workers, etc. Considering a food industry, the business activities and supply of various food products have been suspended due to restrictions of demand, closing the food production facilities, and financial restrictions. The aim of this paper is to analyse the impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic on MSME food processing units in the Indian state of Kerala. The study uses the primary data for analysis that is represented as a questionnaire. The questionnaire is distributed to the 600 MSME managers to identify the impacts faced by the MSMEs during COVID 19. The results indicated that COVID-19 has major impacts on the performance of MSME food processing units in Kerala, such as layoffs of workers, reduction of working hours and salary, difficulties in accessing raw materials, decreasing production levels, individual capital difficulties, marketing difficulties, and administrative procedures.