Food loss, food waste cause 2 percent of GDP in damages

Vietnam's post-harvest loss accounts for about 20-25 percent. Total loss is estimated at 8.8 million tons, equivalent to US$3.9 billion, accounting for about 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and about 12 percent of Vietnam's agriculture sector.
The group of vegetables and fruits sees the highest rate of loss of about 32 percent of production, equivalent to 7.3 million tons of vegetables and fruits lost each year. For the meat industry, the loss rate is up to 14 percent of production, equivalent to 694,000 tons per year. The group of fish and aquatic products have a loss rate of about 12 percent of production, equivalent to 804,000 tons per year.

The reasons include small-scale agricultural production, backward mechanization in the harvest stage, inefficient logistics system, a lack of storage infrastructure, and a shortage of machinery for deep processing. Moreover, the measures of packing and post-harvest processing in the supply chain have not met the demand, and the logistics system is still limited.

Many opinions suggest that the country needs to promote research and transfer advanced processing technology and put into practice the advances in materials and preservatives into production to produce products with high added-value to reduce food loss and food waste in the process of production and processing. At the same time, it is essential to invest in factories and cold storage in concentrated production areas to reduce post-harvest losses and ensure product quality and traceability.

The Embassy of Denmark will organize a conference to connect enterprises and experts from the two countries to exchange experiences and knowledge about solutions to reduce food loss and waste.

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