May 3, 2021 — In February 2020, Rio (not his real name), a crab and sea snail processor in Langkat regency on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, found his business drying up. Normally at this time of year his business would have been booming from seafood exports to China and Hong Kong for the Lunar New Year festival.
Like many others in small-scale seafood supply chains across the world, Rio was feeling the impacts of COVID-19.
In the early months of the pandemic, community lockdowns and public health risks combined with restrictions on worker movement and seafood trade forced small-scale fishing communities in several parts of the world to close down their businesses. They were left in a state of economic and social uncertainty.
Some small, local seafood vendors, like Indonesian pedagang along-along who sell fish, vegetables and other perishable foods from motorbikes, adapted. They were able to continue selling seafood despite the pandemic.
How did they cope? What helped or hindered others in small-scale seafood supply chains as they dealt with uncertainties generated by COVID-19?