Reducing Postharvest Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
31
relatively short shelf-life. This constrains value chain development and the expansion of
production and delivery at scale to processors and markets. This also adds to the challenge of
minimizing postharvest losses. For example, the FAO SAVE FOOD: Global Initiative on Food
Loss and Waste Reduction key findings indicate that root and tuber crops, along with fruit and
vegetables, have higher levels of waste than other foods
states that root and tuber crops. The working paper
) gives suggestions for mitigation of losses of root and
tuber crops in Ghana.
Postharvest losses (physical and economic) in OIC Member Countries
OIC Member Countries ranked in order of production and main root and tuber crop along with
reported information about the extent of physical and economic losses .
Table 8: Postharvest losses reported for main root and tuber crop produced OIC Member
Countries
Country Main Roots and Tuber
Crop
Production
(MT)
Physical loss (%)
Banglades
h
Potatoes 8,603,000 23-28% (Hossain and Miah, 2009)
5.2% in the harvest period
6.4% in the off-season
Egypt 4,800,000 18% (Blond 1984)
Algeria 4,400,000 10-40% (Yahia 2005)
Kazakhsta
n
3,343,600 10-20% Agricultural production (Shortan 2014)
10-30% postharvest handling and storage (Shortan
2014)
3-5% processing and packaging (Shortan 2014)
10-15% distribution and packaging (Shortan 2014)
5-15% consumption at the household level
(Shortan 2014)
Azerbaijan 992,800 10-40% (Yahia 2005)
Bahrain 180 10-40% (Yahia 2005)
Nigeria Cassava 54,000,000 7%, 1% on farm (Naziri 2015)
25% for Gari 8.5% on farm (Oguntade 2013)
Mozambiq
ue
10,000,000 43% Agricultural
Production (Jones et al., 2015)
14% Postharvest Handling and Storage (Jones et
al., 2015)
18% Processing and Packaging
15% Distribution (Jones et al., 2015)
5% Householder and consumers (Jones et al.,
2015)
Cameroon 4,596,383 30% (Market Insider 2015)
Benin 3,695,514 13.6% Harvesting
8.5% Handling (Mutungi and Affognon 2013)
40–50% Storage cassava Chips (Mutungi and
Affognon 2013)
23.2% Processing 3
Côte
d'Ivoire
Yams 5,800,000 N/A
Mali Sweet potatoes 250,000 N/A
Note: Economic loss (Value) was only given for Nigeria: US$50 million (South West only) (Naziri 2015) EUR 686
million (Oguntade 2013)