MoAg and regional endeavor to reduce food wastage in NENA

The MoAg organised last Monday a workshop in order to launch the FAO regional project entitled “Building capacities to reduce the food wastage in the Near East” which is implemented in collaboration with that UN body and includes a number of countries from the region notably Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Iran.
On that occasion, the MoAg media office issued a statement noting that the workshop comes at a time when the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region is suffering from food wastage which is estimated at 250 kilograms per person and is costing the economies some USD 60 billion a year.  The statement added that such high levels of food wastage affect food availability and exacerbate water scarcity.  The statement also noted that governments participating in this project have made commitments to address this issue and have asked for the help of the FAO which subsequently prepared this project with technical assistance from the Technical Collaboration Programme (TCP).  The project seeks to build capacities in food management, transportation, storage and distribution, and will include the implementation of training and educational workshops spreading over 24 months that will focus on fundamental guidelines for prevention against food wastage.  The workshops also will seek to build the capacities of the industrial food sector as well as food distribution.

Source: Al-Safir, Al-Diyar 30 September 2014