Closing Meeting Held for 'Reducing Food Losses' Project in İzmir

Closure Meeting Held for 'Reducing Food Loss in Izmir, Starting from Bornova' Project

The closure meeting of the 'Reducing Food Loss in Izmir, Starting from Bornova' Project, conducted in partnership with Aegean Exporters Associations, Ege University and Bornova District Agriculture and Forestry Directorate, took place on 28 October Thursday at Aegean Exporters Associations. At the meeting, work conducted during 2019 on reducing food loss was discussed. The panel included Hayrettin Uçak, Chairman of the Board of Aegean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association, Ahmet Volkan Güngören, Deputy Director General of EU and Foreign Relations at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ayşin Senses, Head of Strategy Development Department at TMO, Ruhşan Özdemir Çifçi, Bornova District Agriculture Director, and Sheikh Ahaduzzaman, FAO Turkey Program Coordinator, along with numerous academics and sector representatives. Hayrettin Uçak, Chairman of the Board of Aegean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association, stated: "I hope we will see that this project will bring great benefits especially to our fresh vegetable and fruit sector. Products change hands many times from field to shelf. With each change, we experience significant losses across all products. Looking at examples around us, it is possible to see that food waste and loss can be reduced. For instance, one of our business colleagues reduced this loss ratio from 13 percent to 5 percent in a short time through small adjustments. So it can be done if desired. I hope this project will help stem this bleeding wound and eliminate the losses we experience."

Bornova District Agriculture and Forestry Director Ruhşan Özdemir Çifçi: "We organized training on harvesting, post-harvest storage, processing and transportation, and storage stages. We attempted to raise awareness among our producers through technical field visits. Because we see that food loss occurs worldwide.

However, in developing countries, food loss particularly occurs at the production, transportation and processing stages. In our work with 146 producers in 14 districts of Izmir, we found that in the initial production stage, losses reach 23 percent in grapes, 18 percent in figs, 17 percent in cherries, 20 percent in cucumbers, and 9 percent in tomatoes. We need to prevent this. Our other targets were food establishments, cold storage facilities and markets. In the other group were women and children. We provided homemakers with training on label literacy, compost fertilizer production and smart shopping to contribute to household economics and reduce food waste. Additionally, through training conducted in schools in our district, we attempted to raise awareness among elementary school students on subjects including Balanced Nutrition, Food Waste, Food Safety, Hygiene and the Alo 174 Food Line." Sheikh Ahaduzzaman, FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) Turkey Program Coordinator, emphasized that an important session took place for Turkey and the world, and noted that in this context they work with sector representatives as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on incentive-based practices. Stating that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will launch a major awareness campaign, Ahaduzzaman said: "The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is creating an action plan by presenting a strategy document through work to be carried out. By presenting a document of milestone quality, it will support efforts to prevent food waste. As FAO, we will continue to provide support for this and similar work. Because reducing food loss and, as a result, creating a world free from hunger is truly possible. We will also begin sharing best practices and success stories from other countries in Turkey."