54: Wine, Supply Chains, COVID19 Paris GOODfood+wine March 2020 by Paige Donner

by Paige Donner

LISTEN HERE Episode 54 Paris GOODfood+wine

Like most people here in France this week, I’m working from home. Saturday evening the French Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, announced that as of Sunday all cafes, restaurants and shops would be closed. Only the essentials, like boulangeries (gotta love the French and their love for their fresh daily baguettes , croissants et pain au chocolat!), pharmacies and grocery stores would remain open.

As luck would have it, Sunday marked the first day of an early spring, at least weather-wise. I wandered down to the Quai d’Orleans on the Ile St. Louis in the afternoon and saw that hundreds of others had had the same idea. People were gathered there with friends and family, enjoying their bottles of wine or beer and cheese and, yes, baguettes. Seemingly in the face of cafe and restaurant closures, the French just take it to the streets, or the quays in this instance. Vive les French!

This morning however, back to our gray misty Parisian mornings, a fellow dog owner in my neighborhood advised me that as of Wednesday the city will be in lockdown with military and police patroling the streets. ‘Just a rumor,’ he said. Another woman, who works for an anglophone Embassy, told me that things will stay relatively normal, albeit these closures of shops, restaurants, cafes and of course, schools, until after next Sunday which is another primary election day in France. After that, she said, the real measures will be put in place.

All of this to say, that, the theme of our March 2020 Paris GOODfood+wine episode, broadcasting here from Paris, France, focuses on the coronavirus and its impact on global supply chains, namely as it relates to wine. For this, we speak with supply chain expert Alain-Xavier Wurst, who talks to us about the bottlenecks in supply chain that wine a shipments have been experiencing as it arrived in China during February and the first part of March.

There is also an impact on food shipments. In this global economy, interestingly, there has been a shift in food culture in the past decade that has us focusing more on local produce and locally sourced foods.

An article from last week in Nielsen.com says that this pandemic spotlights the wisdom of ‘Locally Grown,’ in regards to food.

LOCKDOWN MEANS ‘LOCAL’ MAY SHINE

https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2020/covid-19-concerns-are-a-likely-tipping-point-for-local-brand-growth/

The article states, “ Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, some markets have taken extreme measures to protect their populations by issuing widespread quarantines, halting manufacturing and disrupting supply chains.” It goes on to state,

“In recent years, consumers have generally displayed strong preferences for local dairy and fresh produce brands and products versus those coming from further afield. Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, anxieties around origins of products and ingredients are likely to fuel increased demand for even more local sourcing.”

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EPISODE 53 IS ALSO BEING BROUGHT

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So just as this emphasis these past weeks on remote and at-home working are changing people’s habits, so will these disruptions in supply chains inevitably change consumers’ demands, tastes and spending habits.

In other words, it appears that ‘Buy Local’ is here to stay. You can read more about this and find the above-referenced article on my blog that I founded in 2009, Local Food And Wine which is at LocalFood.wine and also at LocalFoodAndWine.wordpress.com.

Just one more thought on this subject, if consumer spending does evolve more toward primarily purchasing locally produced foods and wines, then I’m certainly happy that I live about an hour away from several of the best wine producing regions in the world, namely Burgundy, Champagne and the Loire, not to mention the others here in France that are a bit further afield.

So with my dog at my feet, recording here from my home office in Paris, I hope you enjoy this exceptional Episode 54 of Paris GOODfood+wine, focused on supply chain impacts on our wine and food supplies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Oh, and, we also touch a bit on the wine and climate change issue here with Alain-Xavier weighing in on the fact that this is the first year in recorded history that there will be no EisWein vintage from Germany, according to the BBC.

Music by (All free of rights)

Freesoundtrack.com : Emotional Epic Fresh Sound, Urban Zen

BensoundMusic.com : Jazzy Piano

Show Notes: https://localfoodandwine.wordpress.com

Find Paris GOODfood+wine on Paris Food And Wine, Bordeaux Food And Wine, Vancouver Food And Wine, Okanagan Food And Wine, Chérie du Vin and @parisfoodwine and @bordeauxfoodvin

Show Intro music Groovy by Bensoundmusic.com

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‘Never lose track of your assets’