SINGAPORE/TOKYO/PARIS (Reuters) – Global demand for premium foods like wagyu beef, bluefin tuna and caviar has plunged with thousands of restaurants shuttered and many economies sliding into recession amid the coronavirus pandemic.
FILE PHOTO: Meat from a 278kg bluefin tuna, priced with a bid over $3 million at Toyosu fish market’s first tuna auction of the year, is pictured at Sushi Zanmai restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, January 5, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
As strict lockdown measures to contain the outbreak ravage global economic activity, the luxury food industry could be among the worst hit since it heavily relies on restaurants and top hotels for demand for deluxe items from caviar to champagne.
While some gourmet food producers are tapping consumers directly to stay afloat, others have been forced to cut output as some products have lost nearly half their value since the start of the year.
Jean-Marie Barillere, co-chairman of champagne producers’ lobby CIVC in France, said he hoped people would celebrate the easing of lockdown with a bottle of champagne, but expected a difficult end to the year.
“This is really a period that looks like a war time,” he said.
Bookings data compiled by OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation service, showed a near 80% year-on-year decline in seated diners at restaurants in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, Ireland and Mexico this year.
Graphic: Restaurants have been one of the hardest-hit sectors of the global economy, here
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