Food Loss and Waste Reduction in Specific Fruit and Vegetable Value Chains in Eastern Africa

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 and the Malabo Declaration both address the critical issue of food loss and waste (FLW), but they differ in scope, timelines and regional focus. While SDG 12.3 provides a global framework and target of 2030, the Malabo Declaration reflects Africa's pressing need to reduce FLW by 2025. Despite these targets and focus on FLW reduction by the global community, high FLW of fruits and vegetables continues to persist in many parts of Africa due to systemic constraints related to limitations in governance, financing and knowledge. It is estimated that up to 50% of nutritious fruits and vegetables are lost and yet supply hardly meets demand. The objective of this review was to identify the causes of FLW as well as possible solutions to reduce FLW in three fruit and vegetable values chains in East Africa. These three fruit and vegetable value chains were categorized as (i) "exotic, produced all year round, highly perishable and very inexpensive", (ii) "exotic and indigenous, seasonal production, somewhat perishable and somewhat expensive" and (iii) "indigenous, produced all year round, extremely perishable and inexpensive", represented by tomatoes, mangoes and indigenous leafy green vegetables, respectively. The upstream (farmer to market place) and downstream (market place to fork) causes of FLW are discussed and their respective solutions are suggested. The solutions provided herein are not only economically viable but also practical and can be adopted for the reduction of FLW in fruit and vegetable value chains in East Africa. This approach could result in the simultaneous increase of the access and affordability of fruits and vegetables for low-income consumers in East Africa.