The Swedish Food Industry in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability in the Primary Production and Processing Sectors in a Time of Uncertainty and Crisis.

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the national crisis preparedness resulting in an increased interest for food self-sufficiency, while also disrupting the way business is conducted. Parallelly, the environmental crisis is advancing, increasing the need and interest for sustainable development. This combined created a window of opportunity for the food industry to develop in favor of sustainability. The purpose of this research is to envice how the Swedish primary food production and processing sectors have been affected by the pandemic from a sustainability point of view and if it has utilized this window of opportunity. The literature review outlines Sweden's response to the COVID-19 pandemic together with research on how to sustainably recover. Through identification of research gaps in the field, a theoretical framework is developed with theories on sustainability, motivation, communication, digitalization. A qualitative research strategy, with an exploratory approach has been applied to capture the uniqueness of this situation. The empirical analysis shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted both sectors which is shown through common trends in terms of remote and digital work, increased internet commerce, and increased communication. Furthermore, all studied companies experienced continued and intensified work in the three sustainability pillars during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic has not had a negative effect on the Swedish primary food production and processing sectors, it has instead resulted in an increased interest for domestically and sustainably produced products.