Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 168

PART 3 HIGHLIGHTS OF ONGOING STUDIES
qualit y protein, important fatt y acids and
micronutrients. Removal of fish from the food
chain also results in a physical loss and further
contributes to reduced availabilit y. Both t y pes of
loss have negative impact on food and nutrition
securit y, as consumers have access to less fish or
fish of lower qualit y, while the value chain actors
have poorer economic returns.
successfully benchmarked three ecolabel
certification schemes – RFM, IRFM and the
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) – and one
aquaculture certification scheme – Best
Aquaculture Practices Certification. Other
schemes from both sectors are in the pipeline
for recognition.
Ecolabelling and certification in fish and fish
product markets nonetheless face several
important challenges, related to, among others,
inclusiveness (particularly in connection with
developing countries and small-scale fishers
and producers), the willingness of consumers to
pay more for certified products, the balance of
costs and benefits for those seeking
certification and (most recently) the expansion
of certification criteria to include social
standards, for which there are limited
internationally agreed performance norms. FAO
continues to work closely with its Members, the
private sector, NGOs and other stakeholders to
develop solutions.
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio+20) in 2012 acknowledged the
global importance of food loss and waste, and
SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and
production) addresses the problem specifically,
with the target: “By 2030, to halve per capita
global food waste at the retail and consumer
levels and reduce food losses along production
and supply chains, including post-har vest
losses”.
FAO studies (Diei-Ouadi et al., 2015; Wibowo et
al., 2017) have found that 65 percent of post-
har vest fish loss and waste is due to technical,
technological and/or infrastructure deficiencies,
coupled with inadequate knowledge and skill in
post-har vest handling. The remaining 35 percent
of loss and waste is linked to the social and
cultural dimensions of v ulnerabilit y, governance,
reg ulations and their enforcement.
Post-harvest loss and waste
Post-har vest loss and waste can easily offset the
food securit y and nutrition benefits of fish and
fish products, and t ypically occur in those
countries that can least afford to waste a
valuable source of food and nutrition.
Gustavsson et al. (2011) estimated that the food
loss and waste for the whole fisheries sector
amounted to 35 percent of global catches, with
between 9 and 15 percent of these losses due to
fish discards at sea, mostly in trawl fisheries.
However, loss and waste are found along the
whole value chain, from production to the
consumer. FAO workshops in India and Mexico
associated losses with the employment of
gillnets and trammel nets, which are
predominantly used in artisanal, small-scale and
household-based fisheries in tropical and
subtropical regions (Suuronen et al., 2017). An
FAO workshop for the Near East region in 2013
linked significant waste at the household and
consumption levels to food traditions and habits
(Curtis et al., 2016).
FAO has been working with developing
countries to combat fish losses since the 1990s.
Its programme in this area has developed
methods to assess post-har vest loss in small-
scale fisheries, facilitating prioritization of
mitigation measures, and identified simple
technologies to reduce loss and waste along the
value chain, with significant results. For
example, in inland fisheries, the use of raised
racks for fish dr ying resulted in a 50 percent
reduction in post-har vest losses in two years in
Lake Tanganyika riparian countries
(Griliopoulos, 2014). In coastal fisheries, the
upgrade of mud crab (Scylla serrata) handling
facilities reduced losses from 25 to 9.4 percent in
the Indian Ocean region (Kasprzyk and
Rajaonson, 2013).
In July 2016, COFI requested the development of
international g uidelines on post-har vest losses.
In support of this effort, the Government of
Norway funded a seed project to examine the
Post-har vest qualit y losses can account for more
than 70 percent of the total loss in a given value
chain (FAO, 2014b) and result in loss of high-
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