Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- About a third of all the food produced for human consumption each year is lost or wasted. In developing countries, 40 percent of food is wasted at the harvest or processing stage (food loss). In developed countries, the same percentage is lost at the stage of consumption or retail sale (food waste). At the same time, more than three billion people are malnourished or cannot afford healthy food. Everyone can contribute to change this situation.

These issues were discussed at the national validation workshop on “Formulation of a Strategic roadmap for Food Loss and Waste Reduction in Uzbekistan”, organized on June 30 in Tashkent by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The agenda of the workshop included analysis of legislation and policies related to Food Loss and Waste management in Uzbekistan and presentation of the results of the inception and field missions. Key issues and recommendations for food loss and waste prevention and reduction were presented. Then the participants reviewed the first draft Strategy for food loss and waste prevention and reduction in Uzbekistan.

«Adoption of the strategy will contribute to improvement of national food system sustainability in Uzbekistan as well as in ensuring better food security and will open up new business opportunities. Moreover, reducing food loss and waste is an important target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the 2030 Agenda», - said Sherzod Umarov, Assistant FAO Representative in Uzbekistan.

As was noted at the workshop, Target 12.3 (SDGs) calls for “halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food loss along production and supply chains (including post-harvest losses) by 2030”. The workshop participants expressed their hope that the implementation of the project would contribute to the achievement of this.

The workshop was held within the framework of the FAO project “Reduction of Food Loss and Waste in Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Turkey”, implemented as part of the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture (FTPP II). The project aims to assist Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in developing measures to reduce food loss and waste, covering all sub-sectors of the food system from farmers to consumers.

The main project beneficiaries are trainers, extension specialists and other staff of national institutions, government, non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations, as well as farmer/fisher organizations and other food value chain actors.