Food loss and waste is not only a country-specific, but a global, large-scale problem. With the world’s population growing rapidly and natural resources decreasing day by day, it is becoming more and more critical to act very quickly to support food production and responsible consumption through the efficient use of existing natural resources. Raw materials, water, soil, labor, and time are used in food production and all these resources are wasted as food goes to waste. Reducing food loss and waste has multifaceted benefits for both people and the planet we live on in terms of economy, environment, food security, climate change, biodiversity, water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, agricultural land use and cost reduction.
According to the UN Food Waste Index Report (2021), 931 million tons of food are lost every year. Food loss from farm to retail (upstream) is estimated at 50% on average each year. In other words, the product in the field becomes unconsumable before it even meets the consumer. On the other hand, according to FAO estimates, lost and wasted food could feed 1.26 billion people every year.
Our position as a retailer puts us at the center of the supply chain. In other words, at the back of our supply chain are our suppliers from whom we purchase products, and at the front are our customers to whom we sell products. As Migros supplies products from more than 2,000 active suppliers, we can penetrate a wide portfolio of producers and create great synergies together. In addition, with 77% of our turnover being agricultural products, we are committed to reducing upstream food waste and loss.
At Migros, we are aware that while we work to reduce our operational waste, we will further expand our impact by coming together with our suppliers from which we purchase products. This gives us the necessary motivation to collaborate with our suppliers.
In our ecosystem, which we have created together with our suppliers, producers, employees, and customers, we include all factors affecting climate change among our company’s main strategies and determine our road map. Our Sustainability approach, which we call Migros Better Future Plan, is at the core of our entire business. We know that every step taken with responsibility results in success. At Migros, we are aware of our liability to both society and the world. To this end, we also support our suppliers to reduce food waste.
In line with the United Nations Responsible Production and Consumption Goal 12, the target is to reduce food waste and losses by 50% by 2030. The 10x20x30 initiative, which was created with this goal in mind, means that 10 retailers around the world commit to and support their 20 suppliers to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. Launched in 2020 and monitored by the World Resources Institute (WRI), we were the first retailer from Türkiye to join this special initiative with 26 volunteer suppliers.
In the 10x20x30 project, which is entirely voluntary, our supplier companies can communicate with experts in this field at WRI, strengthen their own practices by seeing good practice examples, and communicate their participation in this initiative through press releases.
In line with the amendment to the Food Loss and Waste Protocol (FLW) standard, we have updated this target as the ratio of our food disposal tonnage to our food supply tonnage as of 2022. We recalculated our past data accordingly. Our food disposal rate, which was 5.09 in our base year, was 3.68 in 2022 and thus we achieved a 27.7% reduction in 4 years.
In 2022, to prevent post-harvest food loss, we carried out studies on all crops from the fields and analyzed those that do not meet the sales criteria in the production area. In these studies:
Finally, Migros participated in the ‘Upstream Food Loss Metric Tool’, a pilot study developed to measure Upstream FLW under the coordination of the CGF Food Waste CoA. By participating in this study with one supplier and 2 products, we will be measuring how much product is lost until it reaches retail. The first workshop of the project, which took place on April 18, will be followed by 3 more workshops. We believe that the good practices shared in these workshops will set an example for the processes of our suppliers.
