Our First APEC Inventory on Food Loss and Waste Reduction Policy

The survey was circulated to APEC economies in May 2017 and received the participation of 15 economies. The main purpose is to evaluate the progress and guide the future direction for implementing policy and action plans of FLW reduction in the APEC region.

We divided the 15 respondent economies into two groups, in accordance to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) classification of the stage of development of an economy, as “advanced economies” and “emerging market and developing economies (hereafter developing economies)”. There are 9 advanced and 6 developing economies in our survey results.

One of the major findings of our survey is that developing countries programs focus largely on food losses but lack emphasis on issues related to food waste, consequently consumer awareness in developing countries is insufficient. Another important finding of our survey is that advanced economies reported more strengths for a successful implementation of FLW reduction programs compared to developing economies.  Insufficient funding/financing, and monitoring and evaluation of outcomes were perceived as the largest weaknesses by developing economies.

About the 10% FLW reduction target of APEC economies by 2020

Figure 1 Possibility of achieving 10% reduction target

In the survey economies were asked to evaluate the possibility of reaching the 10% FLW reduction target by 2020 as declared in the APEC Food Security Action Plan (Version 2014). Figure 1 shows the reported likelihood reported from the 15 participating economies.

As shown in Figure 1, advanced economies consider the target attainable and deem the effect of barriers evaluated in this survey as being neutral to minor. On the other hand, developing economies are less confident about reaching the 10% reduction target and reported that insufficient funding, lack of standard and reliable data, and lack of interest from consumers are the major barriers to this goal.

Some of the recommendations to support the implementation of programs reported through the survey include: tax incentives to food donors, farmers, and enterprises adopting new technologies; inter-governmental coordination related to FLW definition, measurement method and goals; building up public-private entities; adding information about the correct use and storage to labels; among others.

List of Participating economies in the Inventory

The participating economies are presented below in alphabetical order. By clicking on the name of the economy you can access the information of the existing FLW reduction programs. The complete report containing the survey result can also be downloaded HERE.

Chile

Chinese Taipei

Hong Kong

Indonesia

Japan

Malaysia

Mexico

New Zealand

Peru

Philippines

Russia

Singapore

Thailand

United States

Vietnam