In fact, the canning industry is among the most important processing industries minimizing agricultural waste, Financial Tribune’s sister newspaper Donya-e-Eqtesad reported in a pamphlet recently published on Iran’s food industry.
Mohammad Mir-Razavi, secretary of the Syndicate of Canning Industry, believes the government’s financial support can help reduce wastage to a large extent.
“If cheap loans are granted to players in this industry, we can reduce the waste volume greatly by processing agricultural products,” Mir-Razavi said.
He noted that if farmers are able to harvest their crops on time, both the farmers as well as canning factories can benefit.
The canning industry is a strategic sector, originally set up to prevent food wastage and feed people in times of crisis such as war or earthquakes. However, using canned food nowadays is not limited to the time of crisis. Currently, with the development of modern society and population growth, more and more people are using canned food and demand is growing.
Statistics by Food and Agricultural Organization on food waste in Iran are staggering. According to these figures, 1.3 billion tons of food, mainly fruit, vegetables, fish and grains, are wasted globally every year and Iran is responsible for 2.7%, equal to about 35 million tons of the total sum.
Iranians waste bread, fruit, vegetables and rice more than anything else.
There are two patterns of food waste. In developing countries, food waste happens mostly between the harvest and processing stages while in developed countries the retailing system and customers are the main culprits.