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Indonesia Food Loss and Waste

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Drivers of Food Loss and Food Waste in Indonesia:  

– The lack of implementation of Good Handling Practice (GHP),
– Insufficient quality of storage,
– Market quality standards & consumer preference,
– Lack of Information/education for food workers & consumers,
– Excess portion & consumers behavior

Indonesia is one of the largest food waste contributors in the world. This has occurred in the form of food loss and food waste (can be abbreviated as FLW). Based on data from The Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (2023), Indonesia has lost 23 to 48 million tons of food per year. This amount is equal to the source of energy that could have fed 61 to 125 million people yearly. In the economic aspect, the value costed by FLW is equal to 4-5% of Indonesia’s GDP per year.

There are many factors contributing to Indonesia’s FLW ranging from harvesting inefficiency to lacking of awareness about FLW. The awareness about food loss and waste in Indonesia is still low. This can lead to people normalizing lossing and wasting food without realizing the impact of these actions. According to the definition put forward by Lipinski, et. al. (2013), food waste is food that is initially of good quality and suitable for consumption. However, it ends up wasted due to negligence or a conscious decision. Food loss is the unintended result of an agricultural process in commodity supply chains at the post-harvest level. So it can be concluded that food loss occurs from the harvest process until the food reaches consumers. Meanwhile, food waste generally occurs when food reaches consumers, either before the food is processed or after. The Indonesia National Waste Management Information System (SIPSN) reported the FLW in 2022 contributed to 40.65% of the total waste.

The majority of Indonesian FLW comes from grains with a proportion of 44%, namely rice, corn, wheat, and other related products, Rice is one of the most important calorie source commodities for the Indonesian people. The food loss in rice production is still high. As reported by Nugraheny on Kompas (2022), Indonesian President Joko Widodo mentioned that ranging from 11% to 12% of ‘total rice potential to be food’ in Indonesia is lost during harvesting and post-harvest processing. Reducing FLW in those processes will be very beneficial for Indonesia’s food security.

Many farmers in Indonesia still use traditional methods in harvesting and processing crops, which can lead to significant losses. The conventional harvesting method in the rice fields and old rice mills contributes to half of the loss. Traditional farmers tend to harvest rice with sickles. This method requires a long time and a lot of labor. Long harvest duration increases the possibility of damage to harvested products. And it can be worsened by using the old rice mill. The old type RMU tends to make rice broken during milling. Further, Mr. President Jokowi in a food estate forum in Gresik mentioned that the level of loss could be reduced by using technology such as the combine harvester and the modern rice mill units (RMU). The use of modern RMU alone could eliminate 6% to 7% of FLW in rice production.

Not only contribute to environmental pollution, FLW has also wasted resources, such as water, land, and energy. With the growing population and challenges related to limited agricultural resources and productive arable land, FLW reduction has become an important concern for Indonesia. There are number of things that can be done by Indonesians to reduce FLW: 

  1. Improving agricultural practices: farmers can adopt more efficient harvesting and processing methods to reduce food losses.
  2. Improving marketing and distribution systems: All actors in the agriculture supply chain can work to improve the marketing and distribution systems to reduce food spoilage.
  3. Raising awareness about food waste: The government and all stakeholders can raise awareness about the problem of food waste to encourage people to reduce their waste.

References

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