PARIS, 6th April 2020 — The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Board of Directors today issued a statement emphasising the need for global coordination in securing food, beverage, hygiene and personal care product supply chains. The full statement is below:

Food, beverage, hygiene and personal care products are essential to people's daily existence through this pandemic.

Today, around the world, the 400 member companies of The Consumer Goods Forum - manufacturers, distribution companies, retailers, online platforms and marketplaces - are collaborating intensively together to maintain the availability of these daily essentials for local communities.

We are grateful to the employees in these companies - and in particular the frontline staff working in agriculture, factories, distribution centres and retail stores - who are making extraordinary personal efforts to support this goal.

As the pandemic enters into its global peak weeks, we would like to emphasise that close engagement between the industry, national governments and public health bodies is critical to maintain the supply and availability of these essential goods for the population.

Also, given the complexity and global connectedness of the supply chains involved, we urge that definitions of essential economic systems include all priority corridors for food, beverage, hygiene and personal care supplies within the broader consumer goods sector. These definitions should include upstream suppliers such as packaging and raw ingredients producers as well as producers of product for export, and transportation services providers.

Dr David Nabarro, a World Health Organization Special Envoy on COVID-19, said, "Many people are facing enormous difficulties as they participate in the worldwide struggle to contain outbreaks of COVID-19. It is vitally important that they are able to access food and hygiene products. We are all most grateful to members of The Consumer Goods Forum for doing what is in their power to ensure the availability of these products at affordable prices. We appreciate CGF members' constant support for the efforts of national governments and public health bodies. We encourage authorities to ensure cross-border movement of the goods needed to maintain supply chains so that people's access to these products can be sustained during this extremely challenging period".

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Learn more about how CGF members are taking actions to mitigate the impact of Covid-19: https://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com/events/covid-19-industry-actions-webinar-series/

About The Consumer Goods Forum

The Consumer Goods Forum ("CGF") is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 3.5 trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises more than 50 manufacturer and retailer CEOs. For more information, please visit: www.theconsumergoodsforum.com.

Contact Information:

Lee Green, Communications Director, The Consumer Goods Forum, [email protected]