Cairo, Egypt – Based on their joint vision, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Egyptian Food Bank launched an awareness campaign to reduce food wastage in Egypt and the region, contributing to the creation of hunger-free communities.

The campaign is launched, with the presence of, Mr. Abdel Salam Ould Ahmed, Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, Mr. Hussein Gadain, FAO Representative in Egypt, Dr. El Shohdi, Co-Founder and CEO of the Egyptian Food Bank, Dr. Hisham Allam, Supervisor of the Central Administration of External Agricultural Relations, on behalf of Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Mr. Jozimo Santos Rocha, FAO Regional Agro-Industry Officer, and Mr. Carmelo Armita on behalf of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and several senior officials and media personnel.

The campaign reflects the active collaboration between the Egyptian Food Bank and FAO, and highlights the valuable contribution provided by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation to enable the creation of successful models to reduce food loss and waste throughout Egypt as mean to combat hunger and poverty.

"FAO is keen to encourage this type of joint initiative, which not only contributes to food waste reduction, but also to the elimination of hunger and food insecurity, one of the most important sustainable development goals adopted by Egypt and other countries in the NENA region. In this regard, we appreciate the role played by the Egyptian Food Bank and the Regional Food Banks Network in combating hunger and providing food to the most needy citizens through cooperation protocols with major hotels and restaurants in Egypt and many countries in the region." said Abdel Salam Ould Ahmed, Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa.

Dr. Hussein Gadain, FAO Representative in Egypt, stressed that Egypt is facing a growing challenge given the increase in its population in a context of limited capacity to expand its nature resources. He added that the civil society, the Government and the private sector in Egypt all need to cooperate to leverage resources and focalize efforts geared towards a Country capable of providing proper and sufficient food supplies for its citizens.

He continued: "Minimizing food waste is paramount to food security, but also to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the degradation of water and soil resources, which are increasingly scarce in Egypt, and threatens the environmental sustainability and the food security of the next generation."

Gadain praised the Egyptian Food Bank's role in reducing this problem and the successful experience that was initiated for the first time in Egypt in 2007 and spread to many countries in the region thanks to the Egyptian Food Bank. He pointed out that the launched campaign reflects the Organization's common vision and noble objective to reduce this phenomenon, and leverage resources to reduce poverty and hunger.

Dr. Moez El-Shohdi, Co-founder and CEO of the Egyptian Food Bank, expressed his great pleasure with the fruitful cooperation with FAO and other international organizations aiming at combating poverty and hunger.

He presented the data about the severity of the problem of food loss and waste, which reached about 42% of highly nutritious food items like grain products, seafood, fruits, vegetables, meat and milk. He explained the difference between the problem of food waste and that of food loss. The first, emerges when food reaches their final product stage and part are not consumed, while the second appears when losses are generated along the food supply chain before reaching the final product stage due factors such as poor farming practices, inadequate post-harvest handling, and inefficient transport transportation.

El-Shohdi revealed that the Egyptian Food Bank launched a mobile free application in Egypt named "Wasteless", which will be part of a new agreement with some food banks in countries in the region, including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait. He stressed that the Egyptian Food Bank aims, through theese models created, to end hunger once and for all in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The project of "Food Loss and Waste Reduction and Value Chain Development for Food Security in Egypt and Tunisia" is implemented by FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, and funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. It takes a value chain approach to reduce food loss and waste in order to improve the economic and environmental efficiency of food value chains. In Egypt, the project has been working with the tomatoes and grapes value chains in Nubaria, and tomatoes in Sharqia. It has been successfully providing technical, infrastructural and marketing support to farmers' associations and stakeholders in these target value chains value chain.