The warehouse? Empty. The cafeteria? Empty. The carts? Empty. It is a bad day for Stefano Perra (38), manager of Lievaart Planten Export from Honselersdijk, the Netherlands. The company supplies 95 percent of its plants to Italy, especially to the north of the country. But because of the new coronavirus barely anything is sold there, this is what Trouw saw when they visited Stefano.
The week before last week there were already twenty percent fewer orders, but last week the reality of it really hit home. Eighty percent less orders than usual that week, ‘all because of the coronavirus’. Or actually because of ‘the uncertainty that the virus entails.’