Ballesteros-Bejarano, JavierGonzalez-Calzadilla, Ana CruzRamón-Jerónimo, Juan ManuelFlorez-Lopez, Raquel2026-01-272026-01-272022-03-24Foods 2022, 11(7), 93810.3390/foods11070938https://hdl.handle.net/10433/25860El artículo ofrece una contribución significativa al análisis de cómo la pandemia de COVID‑19 ha afectado los procesos de internacionalización en el sector agroalimentario español, un ámbito estratégico para la economía nacional. En coherencia con los principios de DORA y COARA, su valoración se fundamenta en la solidez metodológica del estudio, que emplea un diseño cualitativo basado en 12 entrevistas semiestructuradas con directivos responsables de operaciones internacionales, y no en métricas de impacto o criterios bibliométricos. El trabajo aporta evidencia empírica rigurosa sobre los cambios, riesgos y adaptaciones que las empresas debieron afrontar, destacando la relevancia de riesgos sanitarios, logísticos y de impago, así como la necesidad de respuestas flexibles y rápidas para sostener la actividad exportadora. La investigación muestra un razonamiento analítico claro al conectar los hallazgos con la literatura previa, identificando tanto continuidades como divergencias respecto a estudios internacionales. Su contribución reside en ofrecer una visión integrada de los efectos de la pandemia sobre la gestión internacional, subrayando la importancia de capacidades organizativas resilientes y prácticas de gestión del riesgo. Además, el artículo aporta implicaciones prácticas para empresas y responsables públicos, reforzando su impacto social y sectorial más allá de cualquier métrica cuantitativa.The COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies to suddenly adapt their daily operations. This has also affected the agri-food sector, which is one of the main sectors of the Spanish economy in terms of exportations. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the internationalisation of Spanish agri-food companies. A case study has been developed to gain understanding and insights about the COVID-19 impacts on this sector. The information has been obtained through 12 semi-structured phone interviews that have been made with international/export managers (or managers with international responsibilities) from Spanish exporting companies of the agri-food sector. This research suggests that internationalisation is a great growth opportunity for Spanish agri-food companies. However, COVID-19 has considerably impacted the sector, and they have needed to focus on identifying such impacts to manage them efficiently. In this sense, most interviewees have identified common changes and adaptations to be faced and risks generated by the pandemic that importantly influenced such companies, being the most important risks the sanitary and the payment default risk. In addition, interviewed managers have also explained main actions that were taken. By handling the COVID-19 situation in a flexible, quick and efficient way, companies will achieve international success.enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/COVID-19Spanish agri-food sectorExportationsInternationalisationPandemicLockdownChangesAdaptationsRisksjournal articleopen access