Concerns around potential meat shortages - and spillovers into other parts of the food system - are putting intense pressure on political leaders to respond more aggressively, as seen in the US, where President Donald Trump ordered meat plants to re-open to avert a looming crisis.

What makes the Covid-19 pandemic unique is that it is primarily a health crisis that has also fundamentally affected both the supply and demand side of the global economy.

In the food industry, governments' policy responses have mainly hinged on three major interventions.

These were attempts to ensure stable domestic staple food supplies amid the uncertainty of how long the pandemic would last.

But these policies were soon abandoned as the countries signalled a return to open market...