Moldova's huge food waste crisis amid extreme poverty
While over a third of Moldova's population lives in extreme poverty, and food prices have reached their highest level in 25 years, food waste remains a significant problem.
The average citizen discards more than 70kg of food annually. At the same time, the Food Bank manages to recover just 0.6% of the food that could be salvaged.
Veaceslav Ioniță, an expert in economic policies at the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS), said on Radio Moldova that the value of food wasted by the population amounts to more than 7.5 billion lei, in addition to the 15 billion lost before reaching the consumer.
"The amount we throw away from the food we bring home is greater than we spend on our children's education, health, and leisure," Mr Ioniță noted.
While in villages some food scraps are used as animal feed, in cities almost everything ends up in the garbage.
The greatest volume of loss is recorded in private households. According to IDIS estimations, the distribution of losses is as follows: 40% in households, 25% in production, 20% in processing, and 15% in retail.
Food waste represents a direct loss for every household. Families spend an average of 42% of their budget on food, and in the case of poor families, this figure can reach over 60%.
While millions of lei are lost daily through waste, the Food Bank attempts to recover a small portion of the products for vulnerable people.
"We strive to be present in schools, from a young age, starting in primary school, and we launch an annual campaign to inform children," mentioned Mariana Percic, a manager for partnership relations at the Food Bank of Moldova.
However, the organisation manages to recover just 1kg out of every 160kg discarded, which is approximately 0.6% of the total wasted food.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
