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About 10.3 million tons of food are lost and wasted along the entire food value chain in South Africa each year, destroying opportunities to develop the country’s circular economy.
Three case studies focusing on the Waterberg (Limpopo) and OR Tambo (Eastern Cape) districts and the eThekwini municipality indicated that food waste that was still fit for consumption could be diverted from landfill sites and redistributed to people, used to feed livestock or converted into biofertilisers for energy and compost.
The Seriti Institute’s agricultural programme coordinator, Bridgette Mabuela, who conducted research in the rural Waterberg district, said that food waste was generated by growers when damaged by weather; retailers; airlines; hospitals and establishments in the hospitality industry, such as restaurants, which rejected it for various reasons; humans who discarded food they had not eaten; and transport companies when food was damaged en route to retailers or warehouses.
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“We need to work together to make sure we achieve a zero-waste rate in the country and the world. It’s a great stressor that, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research [CSIR], we produce 10.3 million tons of food waste annually,” she said.
The CSIR study, which took place last year, deplored the fact that this amount of edible food, earmarked for consumption by humans, never reached them.
The 10.3 million tons, the study found, was equivalent to 34% of local food production, but, because South Africa was a net exporter of food, the losses and waste were the equivalent of 45% of the available food supply in the country.
These results pointed to high levels of inefficiency in the food value chain in South Africa at a time when it was experiencing increasing food insecurity.
The council stated:
It found that the majority of South Africa’s food losses and waste (68%) occurred in the early stages of production, with 19% occurring during post-harvest handling and storage, and 49% during processing and packaging.
“Food waste at the consumption stage is 18%, more than three times higher than previous estimates. In terms of commodity groups, cereals contribute 50% of the overall losses and waste, followed by fruit and vegetables (19%), milk (14%) and meat (9%),” the study found.
The Waterberg area – which includes 4.3 million hectares, the largest agricultural area in Limpopo (40%) – wasted more than 1 million tons of food a year in the hospitality industry, hospitals and schools.
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Mabuela said abattoirs, butcheries, silos and retailers wasted the least amounts of food. In the case of abattoirs, the waste was less than 1% because they sold everything, including bones, offal and skin.
She said:
Pig farmers, she added, were found to be key food waste collectors.
“Other key findings were that women contributed the most waste because they had stricter diet preferences than those of men. [Waste] was also seen in mines and hospital wards. Small-scale farmers were more likely to generate waste than commercial farmers due to the effect of not having take-off agreements,” explained Mabuela.
She said that food waste could be addressed in households by encouraging families to buy only what they needed, schools with feeding schemes taking the initiative to address the issue, and restaurants and supermarkets contributing unsold food to the needy.
“Entrepreneurs who’re focusing on food waste companies should be linked to large food waste generators in order to have sustainable access to waste for recycling,” added Mabuela.
The OR Tambo district, said Geoscope SA director Craig Schwabe, produced enough food (99 000 tons of food waste per year), despite very little commercial agricultural activity that could be used in the circular economy.
Only 1% of the district’s GDP came from agriculture, as its economy relied on services, but it could be a productive area for maize, potatoes, soya beans and fruit.
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“There’s a significant opportunity in terms of the agricultural potential of OR Tambo for a wide range of agricultural products to be produced in this area. If one pursues industries that support local food production, manufacturing and the circular economy, there could also be a significant stimulus for economic growth there,” said Schwabe.
He added that the entire food value chain of OR Tambo needed to be bolstered in order to contribute to economic development, especially food production.
He said:
The eThekwini municipality’s population of 3.4 million and 500 000 tourists, said Southern Africa Food Lab’s programme head for supporting smallholder agriculture Kenneth Carden, generated 150 000 tons of food waste that went to landfill sites.
However, many organisations were diverting food waste from landfill sites, which was a positive sign that beneficiation was taking place.
eThekwini households produced between 27 200 and 40 800 tons of food that went to landfill sites, while food outlets contributed 65 000 tons.
Carden said that farms and firms should adhere to the food waste hierarchy approach, which encouraged the redistribution to people of food fit for human consumption; the use of food not fit for human consumption to be given to livestock; the conversion of unavoidable waste into biofertiliser, energy and compost; and landfills as the last resort.
“Zero-waste approaches create more jobs than disposal-based systems that primarily burn and bury waste,” said Carden.
