The agri-food system of the city of Puebla after the COVID-19 pandemic

This article analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agrifood system of Puebla, considering the subsystems of production, supply and distribution, as well as food consumption. To study the consequences of this contingency, the case of the Central de Abastos of the City of Puebla was selected as a wholesale food market, where the main actors (producers, wholesalers or traders and consumers) converge. The comparative method was applied to the results of two surveys conducted in that market: in 2018, before the pandemic, and in 2022, after the health crisis. Through the data obtained in the surveys and the available statistics on food production, marketing and food prices, it was possible to identify that most of the negative effects of the pandemic were due to structural issues of the agrifood system in the neoliberal period and the resilience of this sector was evidenced, given the role of producers in the rural periphery of the city of Puebla to compensate for the decrease in the availability of food in wholesale markets. This becomes a focus of study and attention, in order to create a public food policy that addresses structural problems and mitigates the effects of contingencies, such as the aforementioned pandemic occurring between 2019 and 2022.