Assessment of post-harvest losses of Warqe food products along the supply chain in Central Ethiopia

Post-harvest food loss is a global problem but it is more critical in the food-insecure countries. Food waste occurs at different levels in the food supply chain from production through post-harvest handling to consumption. The presented paper aims at an assessment of post-harvest food loss of warqe foods along the supply chain and identified hot spots of the losses in the chain. Warqe (Ensete ventricosum (Welw) Cheesman) is banana like plant and it used as a food and non-food applications. Kocho and bulla are two main food products of the warqe plant. A total of 522 responders were randomly selected across the supply chain started from the two major warqe growing areas. Kocho and bulla reach final consumers through various channels. About 45.3% of kocho and 45.6% of bulla were lost from the total marketed product along the supply chain. The highest kocho (24.0%) and bulla (28.8%) losses were observed at retailer and processor levels, respectively. Practicing poor processing method, using perishable packaging material, poor transportation and inappropriate storage and market conditions were the main reasons for the losses. It is, therefore, important to work on value addition in warqe foods, improve processing storage and packaging technologies to reduce post-harvest losses.