Morocco Wastes Over Three Million Tonnes of Food Annually

Rabat – Morocco wastes 3,319,524 tonnes of food annually, according to the 2021 Food Waste Index published by the United Nations (UN). 

According to the estimates by the UN Environment Program, Morocco wastes approximately 91 kilograms of food per capita, per year.

On the global scale; 931 million tonnes of food are wasted, the majority of which, 61%, is food waste derived from households, 26% from restaurants, and 13% from retail trade.

“If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions,” noted Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme. Furthermore, she explained that food waste also “burdens waste management systems, exacerbates food insecurity,” which makes it one of the major contributors to the climate change crisis, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.

When compared to other North African countries, Morocco has some of the lowest household food waste levels. In the report, the Northern Africa region consists of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara (for which no figures were available).

Read also: 55% of Moroccan Households Reduced Food Consumption During Lockdown

The North African country with the lowest household waste is Libya, with only 513,146 tonnes of household food waste a year, presumably due to the disastrous consequences of the Libya conflict. Tunisia has recorded the second-lowest levels of household waste, at 1,064,407 tonnes per year, followed by Morocco with 3,319,524 tonnes and then Algeria with 3,918,529 tonnes a year.

The importance of reducing food waste at the retail, service, and household level can not be stressed enough. It would carry immense benefits both for the people and for the planet. One of the UN’s sustainable development goals is to halve consumer and retail food waste by 2030.

Despite the immense amounts of food wasted globally, the world also faces unprecedented sustainability challenges in agriculture. One such issue is the ability to feed nine billion people by 2050 while preserving the environment and natural resources.