India’s COVID-19 lockdown: Coca-Cola, Nestle and more MNCs call for F&B manufacturing to be made ‘essential service’
At the time of India’s nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19, Coca-Cola India, Nestle India and various other big MNCs in the country called for F&B manufacturing to be made an ‘essential service’ in order to keep shelves stocked and avoid further panic.
India’s nationwide lockdown of some 1.3 billion people started at midnight on March 25 and was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi the evening of March 24 via a televised speech, barely four hours before the lockdown took effect, sending the country into a panic buying frenzy.
‘Essential services’ were purportedly going to continue functioning, but Modi did not detail what these would be in his speech. He later added on his Twitter that ‘Centre and State Governments will ensure all essentials are available’ and pleaded with the public to stop panic-buying, but with little effect.
With regard to food items, the guidelines stated that: “Shops, including ration shops (under PDS), dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy and milk booths, meat and fish, animal fodder.
“However, district authorities may encourage and facilitate home delivery to minimise the movement of individuals outside their homes.”
No clarification was provided as to the scope of food businesses that would be allowed to continue to function apart from retailers, leaving food suppliers and manufacturers in the dark.
This prompted big food manufacturing firms such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, Britannia Industries, Mondelez, PepsiCo and more to submit letters to the government requesting for the F&B manufacturing sector to be deemed as an ‘essential service’ and thus exempted from restrictions under the lockdown in order to continue production.
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