Food loss study conducted in India

FROM May to July 2016, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is conducting studies on food loss in various districts of India. 

The extensive project, which is made possible by the membership fees of the SAVE FOOD Initiative, covers the entire value chain for chickpeas, mangos, milk and rice. It quantifies the losses and outlines approaches for counter measures.

The research team has gone through data from Indian research institutes in the food or agricultural sector and scientifically interviewed farmers, processers, wholesalers and retailers as well as forwarders and storage operators. In addition to this, shipments on the transport  routes  were  tracked  in  order  to  record the quantities.  For mangos the researchers also interviewed other protagonists in the export business. 

Studies of this type are an important prerequisite for mitigating food losses in a targeted manner because these constitute a major problem especially in  developing  countries  with  the  result  that  a  major  part  of  the  produced food never reaches consumers. In an ideal case the insights gained can be transferred to other categories of food or similar markets applying generally valid mechanisms. The study is about approaches related to the building of capacities along the supply chain, the targeted use of technologies but also training  for  producers,  about  setting  up  local  warehouse  storage  and distribution centers as  well as creating general awareness about greater efficiency and sustainability. 

The results of the India Study, which is the second food loss study funded via the SAVE FOOD Initiative,will be presented at the SAVE FOOD Congress on the first day of the 2017 interpack trade fair (4 – 10 May) in Düsseldorf. Already featured on the agenda this year from 15 to 17 December are the interpack alliance, packtech India and food pex India trade fairs in Mumbai. Organized by Messe Düsseldorf  in cooperation and concurrently with drink technology India (Messe München) these trade fairs bring processing and packaging technologies to India and can make a considerable contribution to reducing food losses.