Postharvest loss covers food lost along the entire food supply chain, from the time a crop is harvested until it is consumed.
Generally speaking, the losses can be divided into five categories:
- weight loss from spoiling,
- quality loss, nutritional loss,
- seed viability loss, and commercial loss
- Rotting, mechanical damage, poor handling, inappropriate control of temperature and relative humidity, and
- hygiene issues during handling are primarily what leads to post-harvest losses during retailing.
What magnitude is Africa's post-harvest loss issue?
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that along the supply chain, 30% of the food produced for human use is lost or wasted annually.
This amounts to a staggering 1.3 billion metric tons of food that are never consumed.
Consumers in wealthy nations throw away nearly as much food each year (222 million tonnes) as is produced neatly in Sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes).
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