Time Series Perspective on the Sustainability of the South African Food and Beverage Sector

This study aims to quantify and graphically illustrate the negative lingering effect that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the sales in South African Rands (ZAR) of the food and beverage sector using the time series seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average with exogenous components (SARIMAX) intervention model. The SARIMAX2, 1, 00, 1, 212 intervention model provided the best fit, supported by the lowest values of the model selection and error metrics (Akaike’s information criterion, Bayesian information criterion, and root mean square error). The total estimated loss of sales in the 52 months during the intervention period (March 2020 to June 2024) amounts to ZAR 130,579 million. The most affected months were April 2020 and May 2020 with estimated losses of ZAR 7719 million and ZAR 7633 million, respectively. The findings of this study align with the Statistics South Africa® statistical report based on empirical estimation without any model fitting, thus highlighting the effectiveness of the SARIMAX intervention model in quantifying the effects of the pandemic. The lingering negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic still continues to threaten the sustainability of the South African food and beverage sector, violating the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal, Number 2, which is to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.