The Reality of Food Waste in Mexico

Food waste in Mexico surpasses 22.7Mt/y, according to experts. This issue has significant economic implications for the country and contributes to environmental concerns, including the emission of greenhouse gasses and the wastage of water and arable land.

Genaro Aguilar, Researcher, IPN, and Coordinator, Latin American Network of Experts Against Food Loss and Waste, revealed that 32.8% of the entire national food production goes to waste every year. According to Aguilar, the primary source of this waste is in the phases leading up to commercialization and during transportation. “Approximately 70% of the food is lost in the fields, never making it to harvest or sale due to issues such as pricing or market demands related to specific shapes or colors," highlighted Aguilar.

During his contribution to the forum, Let's Talk About Food: How to Reduce Waste, organized by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in collaboration with Bayer México, Aguilar emphasized that recent research models offer a more precise tracking of food throughout the different phases of the value chain. He pointed out that, prior to 2020, all studies on waste primarily concentrated on the stages following the harvest.

Aguilar underscored that annual food waste in Mexico surpasses 22.7Mt, based on data from INEGI, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Food Waste and Organic Matter Survey (ERAMO). “The scale of food waste in Mexico is staggering. Every week, we discard an amount of beef equivalent to the volume of the Latin American Tower, and the wastage of edible vegetables matches the size of 1,177 structures similar to the Azteca Stadium,” he stated.

The ERAMO survey, led by INEGI, was first conducted in 2020 with the collaboration of numerous students and professors from universities and institutes nationwide. The results of the study showed that, faced with obstacles in the commercialization chain, low prices, and the looming threat of economic losses, many farmers opt not to send their products to markets. The concern is that they might not be compensated at prices sufficient to recover their investments. In numerous instances, farmers are compelled to cover return freight costs when unable to sell in markets and distribution centers, leading to substantial economic setbacks.

According to Aguilar, ERAMO was designed to provide a foundational dataset, serving as a starting point to address food waste in the country. The Mexican researcher stressed the significance of conveying to the public that food waste is not merely detrimental to hunger alleviation efforts, but it also involves the squandering of water, fertile land, and labor hours. “Due to the substantial losses in meat, dairy, and vegetables, Mexico is annually wasting a staggering 39.8 billion L of water,” Aguilar noted.

In the realm of environmentalism, food waste stands out as a substantial contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). In this regard, Aguilar highlighted that, due to the annual volume of food waste in Mexico, GHG emissions are equivalent to those released by 14 million conventional vehicles into the atmosphere.

Globally, addressing the food waste issue is considered crucial to achieve sustainable development. In this context, the goal 12.3 within the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the UN agenda aims to halve per capita food waste by 2030. Annually, food waste amounts to 1.3Bt, representing approximately 33% of all food produced. This results in economic losses of around US$1 trillion per year, constituting 8% of annual greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), 25% of all water used in agriculture, and the utilization of 960 million ha of arable land, equivalent to the size of China, according to data by the Global Bank.