THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE
2020
Food loss and waste
11
Global food loss and waste
is a serious issue and
is the focus of Sustainable Development Goal
(SDG) Target 12.3, which aims at halving wastage
by 2030. Proper handling, hygiene and respect
of the cold chain from harvest to consumption
are crucial to preventing loss and waste and
preserving quality. In fisheries and aquaculture, it
is estimated that 35 percent of the global harvest
is either lost or wasted every year. In most
regions of the world, total
fish loss and waste lies
between 30 percent and 35 percent. Wastage rates
have been estimated to be highest in North
America and Oceania, where about half of all
fish caught is wasted at the consumption stage.
In Africa and Latin America, fish is mainly lost
because of inadequate preservation infrastructure
and expertise, with Latin America being the least
wasteful region (under 30 percent of total fish
lost).
Fish losses, in quantity and quality, are
driven by inefficiencies in value chains.
Despite technical advances and innovations,
many countries – especially
the least developed
economies – still lack adequate infrastructure,
services and practices for adequate onboard
and on-shore handling and for preserving
fish quality. Key deficiencies relate to access
to electricity, potable water, roads, ice, cold
storage and refrigerated transport. Effective fish
loss and waste reduction requires appropriate
policies, regulatory frameworks, capacity
building, services and infrastructure, as well
as physical access to markets. Understanding
how these different
factors interact in a given
context is important, with the interaction and
priorities varying according to location, species,
climate and culture. It should be emphasized
that reducing fish loss and waste can lead to
a reduction in pressure on fish stocks and
contribute to improving resource sustainability
as well as food security.
n
11
Food waste refers to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food
resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers
and consumers. An example of “waste” in fisheries is “discards”,
whereby fish are thrown away at sea. Food loss is the decrease in the
quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by food.
A reduction in quality usually leads to a reduction in nutritional value,
economic value, or food safety issues. Information
on the food loss and
waste in fish value chain can be found on an FAO web page devoted
to this topic (FAO, 2020a).
FISH CONSUMPTION
For over 60 years, global apparent food
fish consumption
12
has increased at a rate
significantly above that of world population
growth. In the period 1961–2017, the
average annual growth rate of total food
fish consumption was 3.1 percent, outpacing
annual population growth rate (1.6 percent).
In the same period, the average annual growth
rate of total food fish consumption (i.e total
supply, see
Box 5
)
also outpaced that of all
other animal proteins (meat, eggs, milk, etc.),
which increased at an average of 2.1 percent
per year, and of all terrestrial meat combined
(2.7 percent per year) or by individual groups
(meat of bovine, mutton and goat, pig), with
the notable exception of poultry, which grew at
4.7 percent per year. In per capita terms, food
fish consumption rose from 9.0 kg (live weight
equivalent) in 1961 to 20.3 kg in 2017, at an
average rate of about 1.5 percent per year, while
total meat consumption grew by 1.1 percent per
year in the same period.
Preliminary estimates
for per capita fish consumption in 2018 currently
stand at 20.5 kg. The expansion in consumption
has been driven not only by increases in
production, but also by a combination of many
other factors. These include: technological
developments in processing, cold chain,
shipping and distribution; rising incomes
worldwide, which strongly correlate with
increased demand for fish and fish products;
reductions in loss and waste;
and increased
awareness of the health benefits of fish
among consumers.
Given the wide diversity of aquatic life,
the nutritional composition of fish varies
significantly according to species and the way
in which they are processed and marketed.
Although they are not calorie dense, fish and fish
products are appreciated and important for their
high-quality proteins and essential amino acids,
12
All food fish consumption statistics reported in this section refer to
apparent consumption derived from FAO Food Balance Sheets (FBS) of
fish and fish products as at March 2020. All data are expressed in live
weight equivalent. Consumption data for 2017
should be considered
preliminary. These values could differ slightly from those to be released
in the FBS section of the
FAO Yearbook of Fishery and Aquaculture
Statistics 2018
, and in the FishStatJ workspace in mid-2020. The
updated data can be accessed through an FAO web page (FAO,
2020b), as can all editions of the yearbook (FAO, 2020c).
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
