Reducing Postharvest Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
2
Summary of global economic losses and those in OIC Member Countries from the Overview,
Online Survey and Case Studies for the commodity groups
Postharvest loss Global Literature review Online
survey
Case/Field study
Cereals NA At least US$4 billion per
year (sub-Saharan
Africa).
USD$ 1.16 billion
/ annum (Egypt)
Root and Tuber
crops
USD20 million (South-
West Nigeria) to
Euro686 million (whole
of Nigeria)
Oilseeds and
Pulses
US$80 million per
year (Senegal)
Fruit and
Vegetables
25% loss in value of
plantain (Uganda)
US$7.7 to US$20.6
million per annum
(Bangladesh)
Meat and Meat
products
6% (Turkey) US$31 million per
annum or 49%
(Oman)
Milk and Dairy
products
US$ 2.54
billion (Sub-
Saharan
Africa)
US$56 million (Kenya +
Uganda + Tanzania),
US$ 23 (Uganda)
US$1.7 billion
(Pakistan)
US$25 to US$44
million per annum
(Uganda)
Fish and
Seafood
Products
US$4.8 billion per
year (Indonesia)
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. The bulk of the information obtained from the literature review, online
survey and case/desk studies concerned the physical losses. This is probably because physical
losses are easier to estimate either by direct measurement or by visual inspection. In general,
the reported information we found suggests that physical losses for all of the commodity
groups were 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 the amounts 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 known was regarding the quality/nutrition losses. It is quite possible that