Between 9 124 and 17 969 tonnes of fruits and vegetables are wasted each year in South Africa, equivalent to roughly 450 to 900 fully loaded large trucks, according to a new study.
The losses occur largely at wholesale markets due to postharvest inefficiencies, contributing to food insecurity that affects over 63% of South African households.
The findings come from Dr Ikechukwu Opara, a food systems researcher who recently earned his doctorate in Food Science at Stellenbosch University.
His study focused on postharvest waste at the country’s largest fresh produce market, measuring food losses, identifying financial impacts, and using machine learning models to predict waste patterns.
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