Workshop participants

30 November 2017, Tunis, Tunisia -- The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in cooperation with the Inter-professional Group of Red Meat and Milk (GIVLait) and the Ministry of Agriculture’s General Directorate of Agricultural Studies and Development (DGEDA), has hosted a National Workshop focusing on post-harvest food losses and waste reduction in the milk value chain.

The National workshop is an important milestone in the implementation of the FAO project “Food Loss and Waste Reduction and Value Chain Development in Egypt and Tunisia”, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).

The livestock sector occupies a central place within the Tunisian agriculture and agro-industrial system, accounting for up to 22.7 percent of the total investment in the sector.

Dairy production has been growing steadily over recent decades as a result of a set of investment incentives and processing projects. However, the overall dairy sector environment has drastically changed over the years, putting pressure on the industry to improve its efficiency and maintain its sustainability in the years to come.

Therefore, the Government of Tunisia sought FAO’s assistance to identify the major sources of loss within each segment of the value chain (VC) and to mobilize the VC operators to prepare an action plan to improve the overall functioning of the VC while reducing the related losses.

“Milk losses in Tunisia are high, according to the studies conducted in the country under the project ‘Food Loss and Waste Reduction and Value Chain Development in Egypt and Tunisia’.

Results show that in Bizerte governorate, milk losses account for up to 9.1 percent and 6.5 percent in Mahdia governorate,” said Michael Hage, FAO Sub-Regional Coordinator for North Africa.

“In order to reduce milk losses and waste, it is essential to tackle the different lines in the milk VC. Due to the problems faced between the different milk VC operators, it was essential to formalize a time and space dedicated to the discussion of these issues and along with FAO come up with tools and solutions to reduce losses and waste, articulate a coordinated action plan, and promote sustainable development of the sector,” he added.

The main objectives of the National Workshop are to:

i) present the results of the milk losses study conducted in Tunisia, which were previously validated during two regional workshops, together with a set of proposed actions to be undertaken to reduce them;

ii) discuss the findings and propose actions to be undertaken to reduce milk losses while identifying the roles and responsibilities relevant to the various actors of the sector; and

iii) prioritize actions to be executed within the project through the work of thematic groups and the development of an action plan for reducing losses for each stakeholder group in the dairy sector.

“Apart from the figures and percentages presented in the study, which showed the huge amounts of milk losses at all levels, from production to manufacturing, the importance of this workshop lies in what will be presented and proposed by all parties involved in order to reduce losses at different levels of the system, improve the level of food security in Tunisia, and raise the profitability of various activities. This will improve income, especially for small to medium households, mitigate the negative impacts of food loss and waste on our natural resources, and encourage competitiveness in the milk industry at a national and international level,” said Riadh Louhichi, Representative of GIVLait.

Participants in the workshop included producers, collection centres, transporters, processors and distributers in the dairy sector, representatives of ministries that operate within the milk sector, technical agencies and donors, and trade unions and civil society.

“Other than the efforts to improve productivity and strengthen relationships between various VC actors, there is a need to reduce food losses and waste in order to enhance the value of products, improve income of actors in the sector, and preserve natural resources. The choice of the milk and cereals sectors for this project was made due to their high impact in food security. The approach adopted by this project is a participatory approach, with different national and regional actors,” said AbdelHalim El Guesmi, General Director of DGEDA and representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries.

Detailed action plans for each stakeholder, producers, collection centers and transporters, will be conducted following the conclusion of the national workshop for milk losses. These plans will provide clear actions to be undertaken by each stakeholder in coordination with the overall VC group, both from the public and the private sectors. The plans also identify indicators and set execution time frames. These detailed action plans will contribute to the development and implementation of a national dairy losses and waste reduction program, which could be a source of inspiration for and application in other value chains.