Technological watch

WRAP Global, the international arm of WRAP, the sustainability organisation, has been awarded $100,000 (c £82,200) to help tackle supply chain food loss and waste in Mexico – conservatively estimated at around 20 million tonnes every year.

The funding was awarded by P4G (Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030). It will assist the development of Comprometido con la Comida – a public-private partnership involving WRAP, Walmart Mexico and World Business Council for Sustainable Development which will bring together organisations from along the food supply chain along with the Mexican government, to measure and reduce food loss and waste and recover surplus produce to sell or donate to those in need.

Last year WRAP Global was the recipient of separate funding from The Roddenberry Prize to develop a bespoke programme to tackle the specific problem of food waste in Mexico City.

In the just published Conceptual Framework for a National Strategy for Food Loss & Waste for Mexico, prepared for the Mexican Government, WRAP and the World Bank has brought together the data on food loss and waste in Mexico for the first time. The report suggests a conservative estimate of around 20 million tonnes of food lost or wasted in every year from farm gate to retail. This represents over 35% of total food produced in Mexico, and is worth US $25 billion, 2.5% of the country’s GDP. At the same time 24 million people are food insecure and nine million live in extreme poverty in the country.

Claire Kneller, Head of Food at WRAP Global, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this funding from P4G, which will contribute to Mexico’s national strategy to reduce food loss and waste. The Comprometido con la Comida start-up partnership will complement existing efforts in Mexico and will help to reap economic, social and environmental benefits whilst ensuring that food also gets to those most in need.”

“The partnership is modelled on WRAP’s ground-breaking Courtauld Commitment which has successfully shown in the UK that we can work faster and more cost effectively when we work together to jointly solve challenges and to work across the supply chain to get to the root causes of food waste.”

P4G is an international forum which works with businesses, governments and civil society organisations around the world to develop public-private partnerships which can help accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Last year Courtauld Commitment 2025 was awarded P4G’s State-of-the-art Partnership of the Year.

The Mexico funding was among 13 public-private partnerships which received start-up funding for projects from P4G in five Sustainable Development Goal areas—food and agriculture, water, energy, cities and circular economy.

P4G Global Director Ian de Cruz said: “We are pleased with how these partnerships build on the early successes we have seen with our 2018 start-up partnerships. Beyond their potential to implement and scale, many of these projects could become the P4G Scale-up Partnerships of tomorrow. Now in our second year, we have nearly three dozen partnerships underway in developing countries, creating a learning laboratory of sustainable solutions to drive inclusive growth, implement sustainable development goals and act on climate change. We look forward to working with these partnerships both individually and collectively, using the emerging partnership themes to build strong networks of keen investors, business leaders and government changemakers for a more sustainable, inclusive future.”