The African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia will be hosting the 4th All Africa Postharvest Congress and Exhibition (AAPHCE) starting from Tuesday, 19th to 22nd September 2023.

The congress will be held under the theme: “Postharvest Management: Boosting Inter-African Agricultural Trade and Enhancing Food Nutrition Security,” according to the African Union.

The four-day congress is hosted by the African Union Commission (AUC) here at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The congress is being organized by the AUC in collaboration with various partners, including development partners, private sector actors, academic/research institutions, and civil society, it was indicated.

As food loss and waste is a global phenomenon, roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption is wasted, a research shows. This loss and waste amounts to roughly 680 billion US dollars in industrialized countries and 310 billion US dollars in developing countries annually, according to FAO in 2019.

The total quantitative food loss in sub-Saharan Africa, meanwhile, has been estimated at a 100 million metric tons per year.

For grains alone, the values of post-harvest losses are estimated to equate to approximately 4 billion US dollars per year.

This quantity could meet the annual food requirements of about 48 million people, exceeding the annual value of grain imports into Africa, and the value of total food aid received in sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency