New Southbound Policy Portal

Experts and officials from 14 APEC member economies take part in a consultation on combating food loss running July 25-26 in Taipei City. (Courtesy of COA)

An Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation consultation on food loss and waste reduction wrapped up July 26 in Taipei City, spotlighting Taiwan’s commitment to promoting food security, combating climate change and advancing sustainable development.
 
Organized by the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture, the two-day event involved more than 60 public and private sector representatives from 14 APEC member economies such as Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Peru and the U.S.
 
Participants discussed ways to achieve APEC’s goal of reducing regional food loss by 10 percent compared with 2011-2012 levels by 2020. Suggestions were also made on how to meet U.N. Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3, which seeks by 2030 to halve per capita global food waste at retail and consumer levels, as well as reduce food losses across production and supply chains.
 
According to the COA, Taiwan successfully implemented the multiyear APEC Strengthening Public-Private Partnership to Reduce Food Losses in the Supply Chain project between 2014 and 2018. It is also working to change consumer behavior as two-thirds of food waste occurs at the retail level, with unwanted produce in landfills being a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
 
Given the Asia-Pacific accounts for nearly 40 percent of the global population, effective reduction of wastage could greatly mitigate climate change, the council added.
 
Since joining APEC in 1991, Taiwan has made substantial contributions to the regional economic forum. These span a broad spectrum of areas like disaster prevention, information and communications technology, small and medium enterprise development and women’s empowerment. (HSJ-E)