19 pc vegetables, 21 pc fruits perish due to bad practices: Minister

Nineteen percent of vegetables and 21 percent of fruits are destroyed annually due to a lack of proper transportation methods, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.

The Minister revealed the figures at a discussion on food safety held with several university professors this weekend.

“According to the reports received by the Ministry, about 221,955 metric tons of vegetables and 290,151 metric tons of fruits are lost annually,” he said.

The Minister said that post-harvest damage in Sri Lanka was very high.

“The country loses nearly 40 percent of the harvest due to post-harvest damage. The amount of food wasted is very high in urban areas as well,” he said.

“The amount of food that was wasted in 2021 was enough to feed another 10 million people,” he said. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)