Horticultural postharvest loss' and its socio-economic and environmental impacts

Food losses and waste (FLW) have multidimensional environmental, social, and economic impacts, and avoidance efforts may yield better environmental gains than recovery. Horticulture has the highest FLW (≈50% of production loss), representing 38% of total global FLW. The primary data were collected from 343 grape farmers and middlemen in Egypt, and the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and the Category Method (C-Method) have been employed to estimate the percentage of Postharvest Losses (PHL) and its socio-economic and environmental effects across the supply chain (SC). Empirical findings show average PHL percentages of 10.06%, 5.82%, 6.53%, and 7.06% for growers, rural traders, wholesalers, and retailers. The total arable land, water, and energy consumed to grow this lost food are estimated at around 23 thousand hectares, 158 million m³, and 3.16 billion MJ of fossil energy (96.9 million liters of petrol), besides other agricultural inputs. This costs the economy of Egypt about $203.5 million yearly and emits 145 million tons of CO2eq. These findings highlight the significant role of cooperative marketing, shorter supply chains, and access to cold shipping, handling, and storage services to sustain product quality. Furthermore, agricultural education and extension are necessary to disseminate the best postharvest practices to increase stakeholders' knowledge and sustainably enhance SC actors' skills for using limited resources. These interventions require intensive public-private investment to incentivize small stakeholders to mitigate PHLs, accelerate food system transformation, and achieve sustainable production and consumption patterns.