How true are the reports that the Indian snacks industry will be one of the worst hit by the COVID-19 lockdown?

The Indian snacks industry is still substantially unorganized but it looks like the unorganized segment is taking a much bigger hit compared to the organized snacks segment in India. It is estimated that the Indian snacks industry could see revenue loss of Rs.35,000 crore due to the impact of the lockdown. Most manufacturers of sweets and namkeens have drastically reduced their production due to supply chain constraints as well as the shortage of labour. In addition, COVID-19 has also created apprehensions of hygiene, social distancing and quality and that is also taking its toll on these snacks manufacturers. The snacks industry has annual estimated turnover of Rs.100,000 crore and in FY21 it is expected to fall sharply by nearly 35% to Rs.65,000 crore. The lockdown also led to massive wastage as snack products were left to rot in the storage. The snacks segment has also been hit badly by the huge shortfall in labour as most of these tasks are extremely labour intensive.