Wasted food represents an opportunity for logistics companies

Post-harvest grain losses of around US$4 billion a year in sub-Saharan Africa represent an opportunity for logistics companies able to provide storage and transport solutions. A World Bank report – “Missing Food: The Case of Postharvest Grain Losses in Sub-Saharan Africa” – produced in collaboration with the UK’s Natural Resources Institute found that in Eastern and Southern Africa alone, food losses were valued at $1.6 billion per year, or about 13.5% of the total value of grain production. “This lost food could meet the minimum annual food requirements of at least 48 million people,” said FAO assistant director-general Maria Helena Semedo. According to the report, governments can help reduce costs and make the crops more competitive by investing in infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water and strengthening agricultural research and extension, particularly in identifying where losses occur along the food chain and how to tackle them. The private sector would have a role to play by investing in storage and transport facilities, as well as trading more actively in African agricultural commodities.