18 - 19 November 2015
 - Bogor, Indonesia

Theme: Reducing Food Loss and Food Waste.

In recent years the topic of food loss and waste (FLW) has been gaining importance, both in the public and private sectors of the global food systems. Many initiatives are being undertaken world- wide to reduce Food Losses and Waste, due to the impact of FLW on food security, food quality and safety and also on environmental and economic development.

FAO reports said that around 1.3 billion tonnes per year of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally. This is enough to feed the present world population of around 7 billion people. Such a discrepancy presents an enormous challenge, if there is to be enough food to feed an estimated global population of 9.1 billion people by 2050.

Food Losses and waste occur across all segments of the food supply chain, which are from initial agricultural production down to final household consumption. During production stage or harvest time, food loss occur in the form of grain left behind by poor harvesting equipment, discarded fish, and fruit not harvested or discarded because they fail to meet quality standards or are uneconomical to harvest. Food losses can also occur at handling and storage stage, in the form of food degraded by pests, fungus, and disease. Meanwhile at processing and packaging stage, food losses occur in the form of spilled milk, damaged fish, and fruit unsuitable for processing. Processed foods may be lost or wasted because of poor order forecasting and inefficient factory processes. During distribution and marketing in the form of edible food discarded because it is non-compliant with aesthetic quality standards or is not sold before "best before and "use-by" date. During consumption in the form of food purchased by consumers, restaurants, and caterers but not eaten. In terms of stages of the food value chain, 24 percent of global food loss and waste occurs at production, another 24 percent during handling and storage, and 35 percent at consumption. These three stages taken together account for more than 80 percent of global food loss and waste.

Food losses and waste have many negative economic and environmental impacts. Economically, they represent a wasted investment that can reduce farmers' incomes and increase consumers' expenses such as seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. Meanwhile, environmentally, food losses and waste caused unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions and inefficiently used water and land, which in turn can lead to diminished natural ecosystems and the services they provide. Food losses and waste rank as major emitters of greenhouse gasses globally. In this case, cereals, meat and vegetables are major contributors to the carbon footprint of food losses and food waste in the Asian region. Food losses and food waste can effect on weakening food security of the nation which become a major concern in large part of the developing world. Therefore, reducing the scale of losses and waste throughout the entire food system is a crucial step towards improving global food security and achieving a sustainable food future.

Dealing to this issue, Indonesian government have pointed some targets to achieve national self-sufficiency on seven food commodities, i.e. rice, corn, soybean, meat, sugarcane, chili and tomato. Ministry of Agriculture, The Republic Indonesia, is currently implementing a national program, called UPSUS aimed at increasing productivity and production while at the same time reducing yield losses. In this national program, Indonesian Government rehabilitates and builds irrigation systems and all supporting facilities, develop transportation access and networks, and provides production inputs (such as seed, fertilizer and pesticide) and machineries (such as transplanter and combine harvester), The UPSUS program is being implemented in 33 provinces. Moreover, in 2015 revitalization of processing equipments of rice, corn and soybean has been done to reduce postharvest losses in seven provinces. The revitalization program will be extended to 20 provinces in 2016. Efforts have also been made to improve storage facilities using an instore drying technology. In addition to UPSUS program, five Agro Science Parks (ASP), 16 Agro Techno Parks (ATP), and one Agro Science-Techno Park have been developed in 2015 to increase the competitiveness of agricultural products and to add value to agricultural by-products through bioindustrial approach. Then in 2016, 10 ASP and 23 ATP will be developed. Of course, the success of these national programs require intensive national and international collaborations.

Collaborations between public and private sectors are essential to support food losses and waste reduction programs. In this case, a global food initiative, such as Save Food Initiative, should be promoted and well-coordinated, problems and solutions are shared, and methodologies, strategies and approaches are harmonized. Public-Private Partnership may include improvement of production planning, processing practices; preservation and packaging technologies; transportation and logistics management; marketing infrastructures and strategies, purchasing and consumption habits.

Hoping by convey this event, will bring about tangible outcomes and results for identifying areas with potential to trigger addition, both individually and collectively, scaling up solutions based on lessons and best practices for reducing food loss and waste, highlighting innovative approaches for financing and working to minimize food loss and waste through the food supply chain that will meet to our main goal to "Save our Food".

Further information

Keynote speech