UN, ASEAN hold workshop to address post harvest losses

The two-day workshop titled ‘Post-Harvest Losses of Main Commodities in ASEAN Countries’ was held to strengthen food supply capacity to address post-harvest losses in ASEAN countries.
The workshop aimed to support the endeavors of the governments of ASEAN member-states to strengthen the supply capacity of the main food commodities produced and processed in the region. This will be achieved by assessing and comparing the political, economic and technological framework governing food production and processing as well as reasons and locations of post-harvest losses of main food commodities in ASEAN countries.
ASEAN said development practitioners, decision makers and private sector attended the workshop.
The workshop revealed that huge post-harvest losses were due to limited attention given to the constraints of farm inputs, food preservation and distribution, mechanisation, productivity, processing, packaging, handling, storage and marketing infrastructure.
The workshop reported studies indicating that post-harvest losses vary from 35 to 50 per cent of the total production, which is equivalent to over 100 million tonnes of food lost per year. In Asia, post-harvest losses are estimated at around 30 per cent or US$5 billion a year. Rodents contribute to the post-harvest losses in the rice sector of Asian countries by six per cent, an amount equivalent to the rice consumption of about 225 million people in this region.