**5. Conclusions**

This research paper identifies global literature relevant to COVID-19 specific to the Food and Beverage Manufacturing sector. A mixed methods approach is adopted to identify global literature and develop a literature relevant instrument to determine the SA contextualized response. The data and statistical analyses provides for insights on the alignment of SA's Food and Beverage Manufacturing Sector with global trends specific to COVID-19. The literature provides insights on current global responses in the Foodbev manufacturing sector. The themes are extracted and developed into a SA specific data instrument seeking SA Foodbev manufacturing companies' responses to COVID-19. A statistical analysis of the instrument data reveals Cronbach Alpha's mostly above 0.6, indicating reliability of the results. The results indicate a strong correlation of the SA Foodbev manufacturing sector in all key responses and mitigations as per global best practice.

Analysis of the results indicates around 10% of companies specified potential closure due to COVID-19, with 65% indicating future impacts due to COVID-19. This is a concerning initial indicator of COVID-19 impact on SME's in SA.

Key mitigation actions in SA include social distancing, communication, facilities reconfiguration and virtual working, this aligns strongly to international best practice. Mitigations not experienced in SA but actioned globally include human resources, specifically exploiting elastic workforces. With the onset of 4IR, technology adjustments are most significant in medium enterprises as a mitigation.

Global literature indicates significant supply chain impacts of COVID-19. SA supply chains are analyzed with 80% of SA companies dependent on the globe for inbound logistics, with 40% for outbound logistics. Forty-seven percent of companies found it difficult to access goods internationally. The most significant response to supply chain challenges being SA companies considering locally coordinated networks and digitalization of supply chains. This aligns strongly to international best practice.

SA Foodbev manufacturing companies have various mitigation measures in place, these align to international literature extractions with the following SA priority ranked responses: (1) adjusting marketing strategies, (2) upskilling staff, (3) emergency response teams, and (4) new health and safety protocols.

The SA specific government response, beyond lockdown support, is skills development to mitigate COVID-19 impact. The SETA is mandated to accelerate COVID-19 mitigation skills development. Literature indicates various global responses to skills development under COVID-19. The data analysis indicates a very strong and rapid response in alignment with global trends. Eighty-three percent of SA companies have already initiated some form of mixed methods skills response.

Priority skills are identified as well as infrastructure support in order to continue to deliver skills training to learners in the sector. Based on this study, the SETA has developed a strategy to support skills development in mitigation of COVID-19. These include digital skills, operational and training skills, supply chain skills, digital marketing skills, and Health Safety Environment (HSE) skills.

**Author Contributions:** This paper is researched and compiled by three authors with the following responsibilities. Conceptualization: A.T.; methodology: P.M.; A.T.; formal analysis: M.M.; A.T.; investigation: P.M., A.T.; data curation: M.M.; A.T.; writing: P.M.; M.M.; A.T.; original draft preparation: M.M.; A.T.; supervision: A.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the FoodBev manufacturing SETA in South Africa.

**Acknowledgments:** The research team seek to acknowledge the support by the University of Johannesburg for this research project.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
