STORIES
A global challenge can only be won with a global response CORONAVIRUS PROMPTS A FORWARD LEAP IN FOOD AND WINE E-COMMERCE
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by Lorenzo Ruggeri olidarity expressed at all levels. Think neighbours exchanging quarantined bottles, expenses ‘suspended’ for the indigent, large fashion companies converting their production into lab coats and masks, plus donations, volunteer work and more. Acts of kindness and gestures of closeness abound, from illuminated skyscrapers to deployment of doctors and medical supplies. Many gestures that warm the heart in this climate of pain and great uncertainty. Never before had we witnessed such widespread mobilization of solidarity. At the same time, the global pandemic has exposed the discrepancies of a planet logicized by compartmentalised reasoning, by nations, which still a world that thinks that what’s happening elsewhere is elsewhere in every sense. That’s until the enemy is
in our homes, and perhaps at that point closing the borders to an invisible enemy already well spread in our country. In short, different measures and different times didn’t help prevention of Covid-19. A global challenge calls for a global response. Today we understand it, we hope tomorrow we will too. Let’s analyse what is happening in our sector. One of the areas most affected by the crisis is undoubtedly the dining sector, globally. It’s literally on its knees, but also ready to find new formulas to start over. The economic crisis of 2008, you will remember, brought us a huge number of bistros and new trattorias in the years that followed. We can therefore expect a similar response, especially in terms of approach in the dining room, with some hygienic procedures that will persist over time and a probable integration between increasingly
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dense relationship between kitchen and dining room, for a more streamlined and formal offer even in haute cuisine contexts. In recent weeks in Europe, many high end companies aimed exclusively of the dining world have offered their products directly to individuals, skipping the intermediate step. An interesting aspect, difficult to think of a return back once the emergency is over, the same goes for many companies producing cured meats, cheeses and preserves who have approached the online adventure and direct sales for the first time. And on the wine front? What’s going on with our favorite beverage?
The first response is the great boom in wine e-commerce which in many countries, starting from Italy, wasn’t otherwise taking off. “The growth of these weeks is striking: it feels like