Food loss in the African value chain

Sub-Saharan Africa has seen growth in food security with more stable politics and economic development, despite the difficulties of the African environment according to the 2014 Global Food Security Index released by DuPont and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

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The 2014 Index measured 109 countries against 28 food security indicators that monitored global agricultural investments, collaborations and policies and looked at how two new factors, obesity and food loss, affect access to safe, nutritious and affordable food.

“The Index provides a common set of metrics that enables us to track progress in food security globally,” said Craig Binetti, president of DuPont Nutrition & Health.

“It will take continued collaboration, innovation and investment in agriculture, food and nutrition to overcome the challenges to feeding the world’s growing population.”

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Rising food prices will prevent access to food for billions of people in the developing world who already spend half to three-quarters of their income on food.

Shortages of water and arable land will challenge food security further.

Food loss is a new indicator that examines post-harvest and pre-consumer food loss in field, processing, transport, storage and packaging. The Index revealed that while high-income countries have the best scores in this category, a number of former Soviet countries, including Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Ukraine, scored as well as many developed nations.

Sub-Saharan countries had the worst scores for this indicator. Among the 10 lowest-performing countries, supply-chain food losses ranged from 9,5% in Malawi to a crushing 18,9% in Ghana.

For more information visit foodsecurityindex.eiu.com or foodsecurity.dupont.com