SAVE FOOD: Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction

Official launch of the SAVE FOOD Initiative on the Russian market

18 Jan 2017

 
UPAKOVKA 2017 will see the launch of the SAVE FOOD Initiative on the Russian market.

FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation has teamed up with Messe Dusseldorf Moscow to organize a special event at the “Upakovka-2017” Processing and Packaging Industry Trade Fair, member of the Interpack Alliance. The Fair displaying 220 exhibitors from 19 countries runs from 24 to 27 January 2017 in the Russian capital.

The special event will be held the first day of the Fair, 24 January, and will feature a ceremony of accession to the Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction (SAVE FOOD) of four Russian organizations, the Dairy Union of Russia; Foodbank “Rus”; Sfera Publishing House; and the “Tara and Upakovka” (“Package and Packaging”) Magazine.

The ceremony will be followed by a conference on the current challenges of combatting food loss and waste in Russia and throughout the world. Mr Robert van Otterdijk, one of FAO’s leading specialists on FLW issues, will speak at the conference. He will be joined by, among others, Mr Konstantin Laykam, the Deputy head of the Russian Federal Service for Statistics (RosStat); Ms Vera Fritsche, from the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA); and Mr Mushegh Mamikonyan, the Executive Director of the Meat Association of Russia.

SAVE FOOD will have its own stand at the Fair divided into four areas illustrating the problem of food waste in different contexts: shopping, home, business and social projects, and demonstrating the best world practice of food loss and waste reduction.

On top of the Upakovka event, on 31 January 2017 the FAO Liaison Office, together with the Retail Companies’ Association of Russia (AKORT), is organizing a round-table on the FLW reduction agenda in Russia. The roundtable will convene representatives of private companies and their associations and will serve as a basis for the development of a white paper on the issue of FLW for Russian government agencies.