On 25 November 2022, an event “Presentation of the causes of food losses and food waste in primary crop production and recommendations for their reduction” was held in the agricultural cooperative “Suvalkijos daržovės”, established almost 10 years ago, in the village of Jokūboniai in Šakiai District.
The event, which started with a tour of vegetable warehouses and fields and answers to questions by Martynas Laukaitis, the head of the Lithuanian Vegetable Growers Association and the director of “Suvalkijos daržovės”, was followed by a lively discussion on the causes of food loss and food waste in horticulture, berry-growing and greenhouse horticulture and the possibilities of reducing it.
International experience
Zofija Cironkienė, Director of the Lithuanian Vegetable Growers Association, who is also a participant in the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme’s ZeroW project, presented the project’s aim to reduce food loss and waste.
With EU statistics showing that around 20% of food produced in the EU is wasted, ZeroW will directly address food loss and waste by developing and testing a synergistic combination of innovations in a real-world setting to ambitiously reduce the stages of the food supply chain from harvest to consumption. “ZeroW will provide credible solutions on how food loss and waste can be significantly reduced by engaging all actors in the food system in a collaborative framework to accelerate a just transition towards a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable food system. As Z.Cironkienė noted, as many as 46 partners from 17 EU countries, including the LDAA, have joined forces to achieve these goals. The project will look for new and innovative ways to reduce food loss, food waste and food wastage.
