The COVID-19 Crisis: Implications for the Development and Growth of Agricultural Sector in EU countries and Russia

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis impacted negatively sustainable growth and the wellbeing of businesses and national economies. The economic outlook of 2020 and 2021 reflects a slowdown in the global economy, with poverty and unemployment rates ascending, national debts growing, and fiscal and monetary burden increasing. All the sectors of the economy have been affected across all of the EU countries, including the agricultural sector. Coronavirus posed unprecedented challenges for the agricultural sector, ranging from a labour shortage to demand changes. Lockdowns caused immense disturbances in farmers’ supply chains, causing them to doubt their long-term viability. Due to the social distancing and restrictions on social gatherings, marketplaces either closed or were devoid of customers. At the same time, the agricultural sector has proved quite resilient during the COVID-19 crisis. In this paper, we discuss the challenges which the agricultural sector has faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and suggest that further growth and development can be sustained through innovation, more precisely, digital technology. The current conceptual research contributes to the body by exploring the effect of the novel COVID-19 virus on national economies and especially the agricultural sector.