Food waste in Kenya: Uncovering food waste in the horticultural export supply chain
This report (PDF) from Feedback Global elaborates on the reasons for large amount of food waste in Kenya’s horticulture sector. It reveals that Kenyan farmers are being subjected to unfair trading practices such as last minute cancellation of orders and unnecessarily strict cosmetic standards by European retail buyers resulting in massive amounts of food waste. Horticultural exports make up 23 per cent of Kenya’s GDP, employing 4.5 million people directly. The study finds that retailer practices, especially cosmetic standards for produce and order cancellations, are resulting in 45% of produce in Kenyan horticultural supply chains being rejected before shipment. On average nearly 50 per cent of produce is being rejected by European retailers before export, despite there being no problem in quality or taste. French beans, Kenya’s most exported vegetable, are subject to a process called ‘topping and tailing’ that results in 30 per cent of the product being wasted. This forces farmers into cycles of debt and preventing them from covering basic needs like purchasing food and paying for school fees.