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South East Asia - Market
More Cold Storage Facilities Needed in Philippines to Curb Food Waste Global Approach to Cutting Food Waste A new study by the World Resources Institute – “Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Setting a Global Action Agenda – offers a comprehensive look at the issue (see https://go.aws/3bJQKt8). Here are the highlights of the study: Numerous studies find that the world experiences significant levels of food loss and waste, with losses “near the farm” predominant in lower-income regions and waste “near the plate” predominant in higher-income regions. Halving the rate of food loss and waste is an important “no regrets” strategy that would contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and sustainably feeding the planet. This report, based on extensive desk-based research and input from partner organizations, proposes a Global Action Agenda to reduce food loss and waste. It involves three main components. Governments and companies should follow the “Target- Measure-Act” approach: adopt a target to halve food loss and waste by 2030, measure how much and where food is being lost and wasted, and take action on the hotspots. All actors in the food supply chain should kick-start their actions by pursuing a “to-do” list tailored to their specific roles. Governments and business leaders should pursue 10 “scaling interventions” that have the potential to rapidly scale, accelerate, and broaden deployment of the Target-Measure-Act approach and the actor-specific interventions.
Accelerate Magazine // April-May 2020
The country’s Department of Agriculture has called for additional cooling to stem post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables. ― By Devin Yoshimoto
F
ood waste is a global issue but it varies by whether a country is developed or developing. In the developed world, it’s more associated with consumption, while in developing regions it tends to happen early in the supply chain, where food rots on farms or spoils during storage or distribution. In addition to being a social issue, food waste has a pronounced impact on global warming. In fact, Project Drawdown, a major research study, named reduced food waste the No. 1 climate-mitigation solution in its latest analysis under a moderately ambitious scenario, and No. 3 in a more ambitious scenario (see page 33.) In the Philippines, post-harvest losses for fruits and vegetables are a major issue for farmers. The Philippines Department of Science and Technology, in a joint project carried out with the Japan International Cooperation Agency in 2017, estimated that post-harvest loss in the country for fruits ranges from 5% to 48%, and 16% to 40% for vegetables.