The Food Loss and Waste in Fish Value Chains website is celebrating its four year anniversary this month. Launched in May 2019, the website provides information on the causes of and solutions to food loss and waste (FLW) at key value chain stages and aims to make it easier to find information on developing sustainable solutions to FLW in fisheries and aquaculture value chains. The website was developed in partnership with the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, and, in addition to input from FAO staff, received the generous contribution of knowledge and resources from a number of individuals and organizations. 

Over the past four years, the website has grown to cover 23 loss and waste scenarios across seven key value chain stages. Each loss scenario offers a detailed description of the causes of loss and waste and is coupled with guidance and examples of solution entry. Solutions to FLW cut across all stages of the value chain, and rely on a combination of the right policy, application of appropriate technology, skills and knowledge, services and infrastructure, regulatory environment, social and gender equity, good linkages to and knowledge of markets.

To date, the FLW website has reached 135K users across 224 countries and territories. Over half of these users reside in Asia, with 30% of website traffic coming from the Philippines alone, followed by India (12%), the United States (5%), Nigeria (4.5%), and Spain (4%). The majority of visitors find the website through a search engine and via a combination of key words related to FLW loss scenarios.

The website includes almost 500 resources, publications, and articles which are available and accessible to all website visitors, and are frequently updated as new materials are identified. New resources are frequently shared through the monthly FLW newsletter, and contributions from website users in the form of publications, case studies, policies or similar are encouraged. The website also shares news of related projects, such as the Component 5 of the Responsible use of Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources for Sustainable Development Project, which is a three year project which aims to enhance the sustainable utilization of fisheries and aquaculture products and its contribution to livelihoods and food security through the application of multi-dimensional solutions to reduce FLW in fish value chains.

Looking back on the past 4 years, it is clear that the FLW website has come a long way since its launch. The website has achieved significant growth and has continued to evolve and innovate over the past four years. With a strong commitment to user contribution and engagement, the Food Loss and Waste in Fish Value Chains website is poised for even greater success in the years to come.