Reducing Postharvest Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
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Fruit and Vegetables
The quality and nutrition losses for fruit and vegetables n OIC Member Countries was only
estimated for tomatoes Bangladesh and relates to the loss of vitamin A.
Meat and Meat Products
The quality and nutrition losses in OIC Member Countries for meat and meat products has not
been estimated.
Milk and Dairy Products
The quality and nutrition losses in OIC Member Countries for milk and dairy and products has
not been estimated.
Fish and Seafood Products
The quality and nutrition losses in OIC Member Countries for fish and seafood products has
been estimated in Indonesia to be between 3 and 50% depending on the season and type of
fish.
5.1.4. Summary of Comparison of Postharvest Losses Identified in the Literature
Review, Online Survey and Case/Field Studies.
Bringing together the estimates for physical, economic and quality/nutrition losses in the OIC
Member Countries along with comparisons with the global situation has highlighted a few
lessons and gaps which will be discussed further in the recommendation and policy sections of
this document.
The bulk of the information obtained from the literature review, online survey and case/desk
studies concerned the physical losses. This is because physical losses are easier for people to
estimate either by direct measurement or by inspection. In general, the reported information
we found suggests that physical losses for all of the commodity groups are similar to that
known for the global situation. It should be noted however, that all are estimates and few
studies are quantitative.
Much less was reported concerning the economic losses and will differ markedly from one
value chain for another, even for the same product and commodity. This therefore is an area
of research that would require more inputs and due to the high cost of undertaking such work,
the target value chains would need to be selected according to economic contribution to the
OIC Member Country. In all cases the monetary cost of the losses was significant but it was not
always known how the costs were estimated. If the monetary losses could be captured, this
will lead to benefits for the consumer and actors in the value chain along with potential
benefits to national balance of payments.
The least is known regarding the quality/nutrition losses. It is quite possible that this will be
critical for countries suffering from nutrition deficiency, particularly calories and vitamins.
5.2. Generic Causes of Postharvest Losses
Postharvest losses and their causes is complex because there are three types of loss being
physical, economic and quality/nutrition losses. These losses can occur in all of the case study