Scottish farmers are being encouraged to work closely with retailers to develop better food waste protocol.
A report from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) based on interviews with farmers claimed food waste was seen as inevitable by growers, arising from changing customer tastes and supply and demand issues.
The report stated: “Improving relations between farmers and retailers will be crucial to reduce on-farm losses of edible produce. Future policy measures to address food waste should facilitate co-operation between these two groups.”
Among other findings, the SRUC revealed that growers do not routinely record waste and many have difficulty in estimating food losses on their farm. Levels of waste are estimated to be 20-50 per cent for vegetables and 1-15 per cent for soft fruit.
They added that root causes of on farm food waste as identified by farmers include pests and diseases, weather, storage, and cosmetic specifications.
Luiza Toma of SRUC said: “Addressing farmers’ concerns about food loss causes could provide a positive change to ensure that more food from Scottish fruit and vegetable farms makes its way along the food supply chain as intended – from ‘farm to fork’ – without being wasted.”
Toma’s group advocated new policy changes such as relaxing cosmetic standards and promoting greater consumer awareness of wonky veg.
They also suggested retail promotions could be arranged around the availability of produce to tie in with gluts and surpluses with more processing and freezing facilities in Scotland also boosting storage capacity.
The report was funded by The Scottish Government’s Circular Economy Strategy, which includes the target to reduce all food waste arising in Scotland by 33 percent by 2025 and stresses the importance of working “with industry to reduce on-farm losses of edible produce”.
