How the poultry industry can use COVID-19 to its advantage.

How the poultry industry can use COVID-19 to its advantage.The novel coronavirus pandemic offers a number of lessons that could be to the long-term benefit of chicken and egg producers. When we emerge from the novel coronavirus crisis, the world, including the poultry industry, won’t go back to business as usual - that ought to be clear for all of us. What is the COVID-19 pandemic teaching us and how can be prepare for the post-virus world? We all make a number of assumptions about how the world is, or how it should be, but the current crisis requires us to question these assumptions if we are to flourish in a post-virus world. Nothing may ever be the same again, and it is worth thinking about how businesses might be run differently. There are a number of key areas that are worth consideration: Train and retrain In the COVID-19 world, those that have been home schooled start with an inherent advantage. Home working has also brought into focus the need to be fully computer literate. Are your employees fully computer skilled? We have been catapulted into a world where traditional education models are in trouble, and this could make continuous learning – online – essential, making educated staff the winners in the employment and salary stakes. The virus lockdown offers the ideal opportunity for the poultry and other industries to embrace courses, new languages and skills, and gain certification. Universities and institutes may be the obvious ports of call, but platforms such as Linkedin, YouTube and Wechat also offer free training and unbeatable opportunities. Every company’s maxim needs to be – don’t return to work post-corona without an increased skill set. Change is good What are the changes that your business could adopt to make it more effective and more resilient? Might robots in processing plants be the answer, or employing augmented- or virtual-reality to train specialized employees? Could machine vision and artificial intelligence be used to make better decisions in real time about our chickens, products or market positions? What will be the big investments in the post-COVID-19 world? What are you planning to change? #foodsecurity #foodpreservation “