Impacts of covid-19 on food security and nutrition: developing effective policy responses to address the hunger and malnutrition pandemic

3. Provide better protections for countries that depend on food imports 
Countries that depend on food imports are especially vulnerable to international supply chain 
disruptions caused by COVID-19. Some of these countries may have the opportunity to better 
balance their food sourcing portfolios, while others may face real ecological limitations to 
producing more food at home (Clapp, 2017). In particular, it is important that international food 
trade not be constrained in a crisis or weaponized by those countries that are exporters. Export 
restrictions, for example, have been associated with higher food prices, and put food import 
reliant countries in a difficult situation (Laborde et al., 2020). Given that circumstances in each 
country with respect to their capacity to produce and/or import food vary, it is important to 
provide adequate policy space for governments to pursue policies that best minimize risks 
associated with reliance on imported food in order to build greater food system resilience. At the 
same time, for those countries that have the capacity to do so within their ecological boundaries, 
improving domestic food production capacity, including in crops in which they wish to reduce 
their reliance on imports, can be a way to reduce price risks and build local market resilience in 

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Impacts of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition: 
developing effective policy responses to address the hunger and malnutrition pandemic 
the medium and longer-term. Improving domestic storage capacity also increases countries’ 
ability to ensure food availability through crises (Viatte et al. 2009). 
Specific recommendations include: 
• 
Discourage food export restrictions to protect countries reliant on food imports. 
• 
Provide policy space and support to countries seeking to improve their domestic food 
production capacity within their ecological boundaries in the medium and longer-term. 
• 
Encourage countries to build up better long-term grain storage capacity.