What is the EU farming sector already doing? Giving the EU agricultural sector a sharper focus on the circular economy represents a great opportunity, one that we are strongly committed to. This marks an important step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, which requires full commitment from the sector as a whole, consumers and the various different authorities. In their day-to-day business, EU farmers and their cooperatives are already involved in many initiatives that aim to prevent and reduce food losses and food waste. These encompass cooperation, food education, raising awareness, public-private partnerships, new business opportunities, modern agricultural techniques and innovative solutions that help to create and scale-up new or existing ideas, to name just a few examples. It is now time to delve into these existing initiatives, to promote them and to inspire more actors to join in.
When farmers contribute to
food aid and to tackling food waste SOLAAL France
“I cannot bear to see people going hungry in my country”. It all began with this outcry, voiced by Jean-Michel Lemétayer, former FNSEA and COPA president. This was followed by an evaluation of existing food aid based on a meeting held between French players within the agri-food sector, invested policy-makers and food aid associations.
Fleshing out what already exists There are, of course, a number of solidarity-based actions that already exist, but there is room for improvement notably in the agricultural sector. Firstly, donations are time-consuming. Farmers, who wish to donate, often do not know how to or do not have the time because they have to continue to manage their farms. Product deposits are untapped: fruits and vegetables not complying with the size criteria go unsold despite being fit for consumption, pallets are refused by retail platforms, surpluses occur when the market is saturated (cf. Russian embargo). Moreover, food aid associations state that there is a deficit in fresh products (fruit and vegetables, eggs and dairy products) because food aid, be it at European or national level, for the most part provides dried, preserved
and frozen products or products with a long shelf life. In addition, medical studies have shown that those who rely on food aid are more susceptible to diseases linked to an unbalanced diet (e.g. cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity). Finally, logistics (recycling, packaging and transportation) come at a cost for both the donors and the associations.
Facilitating food donation SOLAAL was founded to lift these constraints and to salvage unsold goods fit for consumption. SOLAAL (Solidarité des producteurs Agricoles et des filières Alimentaires, Solidarity between agricultural producers and the food sector) is an association recognised as pursuing charitable purposes, that manages the donation process for farmers and cooperatives and acts as a mediator between them and the food aid associations. Since it was set up in 2013, 13,500 tonnes of products have been donated to food aid associations, the equivalent of 27 million meals. 99% of these products are fresh products.
A local approach based on partnership In order to create territorial dynamics, notably with local players, and to optimise flows, SOLAAL test runs the following small-scale pilot actions before putting them into practice on a larger scale: ◆◆ Collecting unsold fruit and vegetables on the wholesale market ◆◆ Supervised in-field gleaning - based on an agreement - with employment centres or students on study-work programmes ◆◆ Reverse logistics with a retailer who, after supplying their stores, recovers products from an agricultural holding, which they bring back to their retail platform. Seeing that the associations regularly come to recover products, they also take agricultural products. SOLAAL is the only association that facilitates donations between farmers and food aid associations and seems to have no equivalent in Europe. This service is free of charge for donors and beneficiaries alike.
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