dmdmdtvs
dmdmdtvs
  • 4 months ago
Panorama 2020 E31
Transcript
00:00During lockdown, we changed the way we think about food.
00:06There's a lot of families that have newly come into hardships.
00:10Supermarkets struggled.
00:12Fresh food started to become a challenge,
00:14and then we got into things like tins and packets.
00:17And eating out was ruled out.
00:20Tried to take the positive that it would only be for a few weeks.
00:23Those few weeks turned into a few more weeks,
00:26and it's been really scary, really scary times.
00:29Tonight on Panorama, five months into the crisis, we've got new habits.
00:35People are enjoying eating together as a family.
00:39There are new opportunities.
00:41We have our own retail milk round,
00:43so, you know, it has really been quite a lifesaver.
00:46But have we changed the way we eat?
00:49Hopefully one of the positive outcomes of this
00:52is that people will buy more of our products locally.
00:59MUSIC
01:15This is Boone's.
01:17Thank you. That's great.
01:19Lovely.
01:21With 28 stores across the north-west,
01:24the family-owned supermarket has had an eventful few months.
01:29We were struggling, as were many others,
01:31to actually get hold of some really basic provisions.
01:34Coronavirus has had a huge impact.
01:39From customers queuing just to get inside...
01:44..to staff struggling to keep the shelves stocked.
01:47It all started with things like toilet roll and hand sanitizers,
01:50we'll remember.
01:52The fear of shortages meant that when COVID first hit,
01:55many of us started stockpiling.
01:58Fresh food started to become a challenge.
02:00Fresh food's recovered really quite quickly.
02:02And then we got into things like tins and packets.
02:05Back in the month of March, grocery sales hit an all-time high,
02:10amounting to £10.8 billion.
02:13That's even higher than the Christmas rush.
02:17And now we are still buying more groceries than before.
02:22In July, sales were 14.6% up on the same time last year.
02:27The market for non-perishables did particularly well.
02:31In the first 12 weeks, we spent 38% more on dried pasta.
02:38Overall, did Booth do quite well out of this?
02:40It's a mixed picture, so, yes, we're selling more tins of things
02:43and more packets of things, there's no doubt about that.
02:46So there were ups and downs.
02:48And the ups were helped by the fact
02:50that supplies into supermarkets continued,
02:53in part because, as a nation, we were still able to import food.
03:00We're in a much, much better place now
03:02than we clearly were a few weeks ago.
03:05And perhaps a different place too.
03:09Rising the popularity of home baking,
03:11we sell a three-kilogramme flour now.
03:13We'd have never done that before.
03:15The pandemic seems to have had an impact on the food we want to buy.
03:22There are more core ingredients being bought,
03:24so people are obviously spending more time
03:26in the kitchen creating for themselves.
03:29Within weeks of being locked down,
03:32a third more of us were using our time at home to cook from scratch.
03:39People have found the ability to bake again,
03:42so goodness knows what our waistlines are going to look like.
03:44Come on!
03:50Sue Pritchard is leading an independent inquiry
03:53set up to help shape a more sustainable future for food and farming.
03:59What we seem to be learning is that people are appreciating
04:03the importance of food in their lives much more.
04:06They're enjoying eating together,
04:08as a family, if they're in a position to do so,
04:11and they're enjoying taking time over food.
04:14Discovering it for the first time has brought a richness
04:17and a colour to their lives around food,
04:19around the joy of food and the place of food
04:22that they had not necessarily known before.
04:25People are telling us that they don't want to give that up.
04:29How do you think the supermarkets performed?
04:31Well, at the start, the supermarkets were caught out,
04:35but they did manage to pivot.
04:38It took a little while.
04:40They collaborated, worked together in ways that they have not done,
04:45not had to do, for decades, if ever, actually,
04:49and managed to recover from that position after a few weeks.
04:57For Sue, the main reason so many supermarkets were caught out
05:02was because of the way they work with their suppliers.
05:05It's known as a just-in-time system,
05:09meaning most only have enough storage space
05:12for one day's supply of fresh produce.
05:17Why has it been so appealing to supermarkets to have that system?
05:21It's hugely cost-effective.
05:23It means the risk of keeping stocks being held elsewhere.
05:28So if you're not having to spend a lot of money on big warehouses
05:32or if you're not buying the products you're going to sell
05:36until you absolutely need them, you're able to manage cash flow.
05:39So it's very efficient for the supermarkets,
05:42but it just means that risk is held elsewhere in the system.
05:45And we saw in corona that it's the suppliers, the producers
05:49and customers who are managing that risk.
05:53But supermarkets have had other risks they've had to manage.
05:57One of the biggest, around safety.
06:00The safety of customers, of course, and the safety of staff too.
06:05Supermarket workers, in fact, staff across the whole of the food industry
06:09have been on the front line throughout the pandemic.
06:12Their work so important to our health and wellbeing
06:16that they are recognised as key workers.
06:20Isn't it slightly inevitable that not just here but across the food chain,
06:24the importance of food meant some people had to take risks to keep us fed?
06:28They absolutely did.
06:29So if you think about the advice from the government at the time
06:32was if you can work from home, work from home.
06:34Clearly in a supermarket environment or a food production environment
06:37you cannot do that.
06:38So we did ask and we knew very consciously we were asking our people
06:41to put themselves at the forefront of the need to feed communities.
06:45So one of the things we did is make sure that we paid a bonus to our people
06:49who came into work because they were doing just that.
06:56At many stages of the supply chain,
06:58there have been risks to the people working to keep the rest of us fed.
07:04In food production, they've been particularly vulnerable.
07:08With significant outbreaks of the virus reported in food factories
07:12and processing plants where staff have long periods
07:15spent working closely together indoors.
07:23Farmers have been determined to stay afloat, safely.
07:28This is one of our fields of mint.
07:30This is a Spanish variety that we grow.
07:36Morning, my man.
07:37Good morning.
07:38Good orders today.
07:39This is valley produce in Berkshire.
07:43Here they grow, pick and pack vegetables and herbs for supermarkets
07:48and the hospitality industry.
07:50The majority of our staff are seasonal labour from various European countries,
07:55Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania.
07:59Just come here for money, for better life.
08:05And that's it.
08:06I'm being tested before coming here.
08:10Everyone was coming with me and being tested for coronavirus.
08:16Tom is one of 26 Bulgarians now living on site.
08:21We've taken our guidance from the government
08:23and we've escaped a 14-day quarantine of all new arrivals onto the farm.
08:28There's a lot of people arriving at this time of year,
08:30coming to work in the fields, etc.
08:33So we've had to hire in caravans for accommodation
08:37earlier than we normally have.
08:40We've had to split them into two groups
08:42because they've arrived at different times.
08:44We've had to separate them in terms of their kitchen accommodation
08:49and their living accommodation.
08:57Tom has completed his period of isolation
09:00and is living in this caravan alongside a fellow worker.
09:04Where do you cook?
09:06In the kitchen over there.
09:08It's for all caravans.
09:10It's two kitchens in the back of that caravan.
09:17In common with many vegetable farms,
09:19this one has had to weather the ups and downs of the last few months.
09:24Whilst the demand for fresh farm produce for supermarket shelves has grown,
09:29the impact of lockdown on restaurants, cafes and takeaways
09:33has created real uncertainty.
09:36It's had a significant financial impact on our business.
09:39Just a lot of trade, lots of customers.
09:42We, overnight, lost about 40-45% of our weekly turnover,
09:47which, as yet, hasn't come back.
09:50During the three months of lockdown,
09:52we ate 352 million fewer meals out than we would normally.
09:59Trips to restaurants and cafes all but disappeared.
10:07Help! Come on, then! Help!
10:10Come on!
10:15Here's where it all started.
10:18Here in Leicestershire, Alan Smith has built up a 475-strong herd
10:23producing milk that he sells mostly into the hospitality supply chain.
10:35But relying on demand from planes, trains and coffee shops
10:39meant he was in trouble.
10:41And, like many farmers, was forced to pour milk down the drain
10:46The business in the last two or three months, Tom,
10:49has been absolutely dire.
10:51I don't think anybody in the dairy industry
10:53will have ever known it as bad as it has been
10:55for the last eight, ten weeks.
10:59Between April and May, the cost to the dairy industry
11:02was an estimated £28 million.
11:08We started milking around 3.30 this morning.
11:10The milk was being bottled up.
11:12We started milking around 3.30 this morning.
11:14The milk was being bottled straight away after we had milked.
11:21Alan has managed to refocus his business.
11:24On this farm, we have our own retail milk round.
11:28And turn it round.
11:30So the people of Leicester today will be getting milk
11:32that was produced today to be delivered today.
11:35So they're getting milk that is less than 12 hours old.
11:39The amount of milk he's selling locally from these Jersey cows
11:43has gone up by about 30%.
11:45And he gets a much better price for it
11:48than the milk he sells to the normal dairy contract.
11:51It's a way of securing income for the farm.
11:54We get paid all the time. We're getting regular payments.
11:57So, you know, it has really been quite a lifesaver.
12:00And it's been a lifesaver for his customers too.
12:09I know that my milk is as fresh as it can get.
12:12And also I don't have to go out there in this Covid situation
12:17every day to get milk.
12:20Services like Alan's have sprung up across the country.
12:23Early into lockdown, some 3 million people
12:26either ordered food from a local farm for the very first time
12:30or joined a scheme to get a fresh vegetable box delivered.
12:33So have we developed new habits?
12:37Being able to talk to a farmer directly who deals with cows,
12:41you know, first-hand is a great feeling.
12:48Getting our local supplies is really important.
12:51Morning.
12:52Having the daily conversations when it's delivered.
12:57Alan has used word of mouth to drum up business.
13:01Others have gone digital, setting up online community forums,
13:05hoping that technology will help keep customers faithful.
13:09I set up Deal Delivers in the first week of lockdown
13:13and the Facebook group got 2,000 new members,
13:16I think, in a week and a half.
13:18And the website has now had maybe 15,000 visitors,
13:23but during peak lockdown it was getting 1,000 visitors a day.
13:28So this is the local fish shop
13:30and they were so busy during lockdown with deliveries
13:33that they had to change all their trading hours.
13:35And I think the deliveries really saved them
13:37because all the restaurants that they were supplying closed.
13:41Now more than 100 businesses are using the platform,
13:45many offering home deliveries for the first time.
13:49I would love to see more hyperlocal delivery websites across the UK.
13:54We've got Rygate, Ashford, Four Heatons and even Dulwich
13:58all using the same template.
14:00Projects have also sprung up across communities
14:03to serve the most basic need,
14:05helping families get any food at all.
14:08People's activism has started to mobilise
14:12around making sure that everybody has access
14:15to fresh, nutritious, affordable food.
14:18And that's new and I don't think that's going to go away.
14:21This supply centre is now a hub for 30 food banks across north London.
14:27At the beginning of this pandemic
14:29when everyone was going out and panic buying,
14:31that wasn't an option for a lot of our families.
14:35Could you get me some of that pasta?
14:37Any particular type?
14:38Yeah, can I get loads of the spaghetti please?
14:40Yeah, we need that spaghetti!
14:42The kids love a bolognese.
14:46A lot of the families that we're working with now,
14:48they're new to us.
14:50So there's a lot of families that have newly come into hardships
14:53as a result of the lockdown.
14:55A lot of people have lost their jobs,
14:57a lot of people have been furloughed.
14:59So we are seeing an increase in the amount of food
15:02that we need to hand out.
15:05Some of this food has actually come from pubs and restaurants
15:09that weren't actually able to open up.
15:12The individual donations have gone down,
15:14so people are not donating.
15:16But on the flip side of that, the good side,
15:18is that we've had loads of companies
15:21that weren't able to use their food
15:23that have given us food that we can now hand out.
15:28Henry Dimbleby is one of the founders of the restaurant chain Leon.
15:33He's heading a government-commissioned review
15:35of our whole food and farming system.
15:38For him, the lessons of lockdown have been stark.
15:41We know that about 4.7 million people
15:45in the early days of the virus
15:48couldn't access food, skip meals,
15:50either because logistically they couldn't get it,
15:53and of those 4.7, 1.7 to 1.8 couldn't afford
15:57to buy the food that they needed,
15:59and so skip meals because they couldn't afford it.
16:01And as we come out of the summer into autumn,
16:04as the furlough unrolls in October,
16:07it's clear to me that there are going to be people
16:09who find that actually they don't have jobs to go back to.
16:12And for those people, that food poverty,
16:15that food insecurity is going to rise.
16:17We are at the beginning of a very, very unequal time
16:22in terms of our food system.
16:25Now, because we are no longer eating as many meals out,
16:29the hospitality sector is facing its own crisis.
16:33The most important thing for hospitality
16:36is to get the sector back on its feet.
16:38There is no society without hospitality.
16:41Hospitality sits in every village, in every town, in every city.
16:46We build our societies around hospitality,
16:50and if that goes, we will have lost something
16:52that will take a long time to recover.
16:58Here, in the East Yorkshire town of Bridlington,
17:01before Covid, there was a busy restaurant trade.
17:07It's a town built on the success of its fishing industry.
17:13They call it the lobster capital of Europe,
17:15landing around £4 million worth every year.
17:21A lot of our product goes into the restaurant chain,
17:25goes into the hospitality industry,
17:27and with those shut in the UK and across Europe,
17:30there simply wasn't the market.
17:32The fact is, not many of us go into the supermarket and buy lobster.
17:34No, we don't.
17:35I think, during lockdown,
17:37people have got a little more adventurous with their food,
17:39so hopefully, one of the positive outcomes of this
17:43is that people will buy more of our product locally.
17:51Marco is a welcome sight.
17:54His truck normally comes once a week
17:57to collect lobster destined for fine dining in Paris
18:00and elsewhere in Europe.
18:04So where will all these lobsters go?
18:0660% stay for the French market,
18:09and the 40% rest is for, usually, Italy,
18:13Italy, Spain and Portugal.
18:16How is that market doing now?
18:18Is it beginning to recover?
18:20The first week, when the lockdown finished,
18:22everybody said, oh, yes, we go to the restaurant and the pub,
18:25but it is wrong, because only the first day was busy,
18:29and after, everybody stay home now.
18:32Why do you think that is?
18:33Why do you think they don't want to go out?
18:35Because at this moment, you have to keep one metre
18:38between each other, people, and it's not friendly.
18:42It's not what we want.
18:44It's not what we want.
18:45We want to go to restaurant.
18:47Our family, everybody happy, shakes hands,
18:50give a kiss and, let's say...
19:02This was our upstairs restaurant area,
19:05with four larger tables.
19:07Every weekend for three weeks,
19:09sometimes four weeks in advance, we was booked.
19:13Rustic's has been a popular neighbourhood restaurant
19:16for some time, serving fresh, locally caught produce.
19:20Lockdown, it's heartbreaking.
19:23Tried to take the positive that it would only be for a few weeks.
19:27Those few weeks turned into a few more weeks
19:30and it's been really scary, really scary times.
19:34Now the government is encouraging restaurants to open up again
19:38and offering financial support to do so.
19:41But there are still challenges.
19:43The biggest of them, social distancing.
19:46For us to be able to work at 50% capacity,
19:49we just wouldn't survive.
19:50You know, four tables upstairs, we would have four downstairs,
19:54but only use two at one time anyway.
19:58So to half that, we just wouldn't be able to open the doors.
20:03It just would not work for us.
20:07So they've adapted.
20:09Reopening as a street food venue, selling the same menu.
20:14Some of the seafood items that are on the menu are the lobster rolls
20:19and then there would be the Singapore-style crab noodles,
20:23all using Bredlington crab and Bredington lobster.
20:27But to take away.
20:31I think people have to adapt and evolve
20:34and make changes, definitely, in order to survive.
20:38There's going to have to be a different way,
20:41a different style of eating out.
20:43You know, actually eating out the door rather than it sitting in.
20:47Part of our logo, motto, I suppose, we're going to be saying
20:52is quality eats without the seats sort of thing.
20:55So I think a lot of places are going to have to do the same.
20:59And many have.
21:01Hello, ma'am. What can I do for you?
21:03Hi. What have you got today?
21:05I've got jerk chicken, I've got curried goat,
21:08I've got escabeed fish and jerk pork.
21:10Oh, and can I have some jerk fish?
21:13This is my jerk sauce I made.
21:15Otherwise it doesn't go dry.
21:20How are you, ma'am?
21:22In Kent, Chef Dexter is now a chef.
21:26In Kent, Chef Dexter is now reaping the rewards.
21:31I've been a chef for 16 years now,
21:33so being in lockdown actually puts me in a position
21:36where I've never been before.
21:38Dexter has got a new order.
21:41I call it a tropical slaw.
21:43I've got watermelon, ginger, coconut and cabbage.
21:49He's set up a street food and delivery service.
21:53Within minutes, I've got people coming, calling for orders.
21:58And the business is booming.
22:01It's really, really opened doors for me.
22:03And I'm very grateful.
22:06But for some of the bigger beasts of the restaurant trade,
22:09surviving has been more of a challenge.
22:12Very familiar chains have closed doors and others are on the brink.
22:16Since 1st April, more than 1,200 restaurants have shut down
22:20and the sector's shed more than 17,000 jobs.
22:24All right, guys, welcome. Is anyone excited?
22:27Yes. Awesome.
22:30This is Brewdog, a billion-pound food and drink business
22:34with 104 bars spread across 20 countries.
22:38We lost 70% of our revenue overnight.
22:41When Covid hit, it was like a wrecking ball.
22:45Which is millions for us.
22:47And actually, we're reasonably diverse as a business
22:50because we brew our own beer, we sell beer to supermarkets,
22:53we're international.
22:59This branch has just reopened.
23:02I was really nervous getting back into it at first, but it's all right now.
23:10So nice to see you again.
23:13Bye, guys!
23:14Bye!
23:19This is our local, so we've been walking past
23:22just to check out when it's going to be open again, aren't we?
23:26Very excited.
23:27It's not just the fact that the bars are open,
23:29it's the whole meeting up with other people as well.
23:31You only hear the same stories so many times, don't you?
23:34So to hear fresh stories would be amazing.
23:38Another big rock in the road for places like this
23:41is working from home,
23:42a killer for businesses relying on the lunchtime sandwich
23:46or an after-office pint.
23:48We're in a predominantly office-led part of London,
23:51and this business thrives
23:53when people leave the office at five o'clock
23:56and grab a bite to eat and a beer.
23:59I can't see that happening in this area
24:03anywhere near the levels that it was before,
24:05certainly into next year.
24:08An industry that was once responsible
24:10for around 30% of food consumption
24:13is now cautioning that in city centres in particular,
24:16it will struggle to get business back
24:18to even half of what it was by September.
24:24To help things move along,
24:26now the Treasury is helping pay for us to eat out.
24:31Can I go for the avocado feta bowl, please?
24:35And because the government's helping out,
24:37I'll have a bit of halloumi with that.
24:45Oh, great.
24:46Lovely.
24:47Can I get you anything else?
24:48No, I'm cool. Thanks very much indeed. That's lovely.
24:51On Mondays to Wednesdays throughout August,
24:53the government will pick up half the cost of your meal,
24:56up to a maximum discount of £10.
24:59Now, that's an eye-catching offer,
25:01but will it really be enough to prop up
25:03the multi-billion pound hospitality industry?
25:08Well, they might have their work cut out,
25:10as research done just days before the scheme launched
25:13suggested that only 15% of people
25:16were happy to go out for a restaurant meal.
25:1918% said they might go in a month,
25:21and 23% said they'd be more willing to eat out later in the year.
25:27We need to address the fear of going out
25:30and we need to do that in a way that customers feel
25:34as though we're being safe and steady and respectful
25:37and that we put their wellbeing at heart,
25:39but we do need to seriously address the fear of going out
25:42into leisure, into hospitality, into retail over the months ahead
25:46if these crucial parts of our economy are going to reopen
25:51and reopen in a way that is successful.
25:55Across the industry, the expectation is that it will take time
25:59to get business back to how it was.
26:02We are expecting and planning that we are going to take
26:06minimum 18 months to get back to the sort of revenue levels
26:11in our pubs that we experienced prior to Covid.
26:14And what we've seen in most countries where we reopen
26:16is that we reopen around about 50% of normal revenue.
26:23We don't make any money until we get to 80%.
26:28So there's a difficult, hard pathway ahead
26:32for hospitality businesses.
26:36A lot depends on whether we see a smooth return to normality
26:40or whether changes that we made to the way we eat will stick.
26:44We have lost a couple of customers who won't come back
26:47and we've just got to see how the rest of this summer goes
26:51before we start to make any harder plans.
26:54Although the supermarket trade is up.
26:58So what lessons should we take from our food habits during lockdown?
27:03I think that's probably food supply chains are generally speaking
27:06really quite agile and flexible and adaptable.
27:09What they don't like is very short, sharp shocks
27:12and that's exactly what it got back in late March and early April.
27:16And the man writing the government's food strategy
27:18thinks we should prepare for more such shocks.
27:21We need to think about how we make the system more robust.
27:25As we saw at the beginning of March,
27:27when people become a little anxious,
27:29they put something aside, put a little extra into the larder
27:33and I actually think there's a very good argument
27:36that we as a country might do that as well.
27:38And this would have sounded almost insane
27:41if I had said this in January or February.
27:43It might actually mean literal stockpiling.
27:52Some might say this is a dress rehearsal
27:55for us to start thinking very, very hard
27:58about what a really resilient system has to be.
28:02And I think one of the things that we're learning right now
28:04is that it's back to the locals, back to communities.
28:07And it's a measure of the impact of Covid on our food system
28:12that we're now worrying where our next meal is coming from.
28:16Stay with us here on BBC One this Monday night
28:19as we've some juicy secrets from the square.
28:22Tiffany, Keegan and Karen,
28:24you send us in Stacey's hot seat next.