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Food lost between harvest and retail (SDG 12.3.1a)

The share of the world's food, by economic value, lost after harvest on the farm, in storage, transport and processing, before it reaches shops, each year since 2015, in total and for four commodity groups, as estimated by FAO for SDG indicator 12.3.1a.

Latest value

13.4%

World, 2024. Version 2026-09-29.

Food lost between harvest and retail (SDG 12.3.1a) (percent of food produced, by economic value)

50 values from 2015 to 2024. Lines: All commodities, Cereals and pulses, Fruits and vegetables, Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops, Meat and animal products.
Show as a table
Food lost between harvest and retail (SDG 12.3.1a), every value
PeriodCommodity groupValue (%)Status
2015All commodities13.0final
2016All commodities12.8final
2017All commodities12.8final
2018All commodities13.1final
2019All commodities13.3final
2020All commodities13.3final
2021All commodities13.3final
2022All commodities13.2final
2023All commodities13.3final
2024All commodities13.4final
2015Cereals and pulses8.5final
2016Cereals and pulses8.2final
2017Cereals and pulses8.3final
2018Cereals and pulses8.5final
2019Cereals and pulses8.5final
2020Cereals and pulses8.4final
2021Cereals and pulses8.4final
2022Cereals and pulses8.4final
2023Cereals and pulses8.4final
2024Cereals and pulses8.4final
2015Fruits and vegetables23.2final
2016Fruits and vegetables22.8final
2017Fruits and vegetables22.4final
2018Fruits and vegetables24.1final
2019Fruits and vegetables25.4final
2020Fruits and vegetables25.4final
2021Fruits and vegetables25.4final
2022Fruits and vegetables25.4final
2023Fruits and vegetables25.4final
2024Fruits and vegetables26.4final
2015Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops12.6final
2016Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops12.3final
2017Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops12.3final
2018Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops12.4final
2019Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops12.3final
2020Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops12.3final
2021Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops12.3final
2022Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops12.3final
2023Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops12.3final
2024Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops12.2final
2015Meat and animal products13.9final
2016Meat and animal products13.7final
2017Meat and animal products13.8final
2018Meat and animal products13.9final
2019Meat and animal products14.0final
2020Meat and animal products14.0final
2021Meat and animal products14.0final
2022Meat and animal products14.0final
2023Meat and animal products14.0final
2024Meat and animal products14.1final
FAO. 2026. FAOSTAT. Accessed on 5 October 2026. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data Licence: CC-BY-4.0. CC BY 4.0 (FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use).

Where it comes from

Producer
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division · FAOSTAT agrifood emissions, livestock emissions, emissions intensities, land use and food loss
Version
2026-09-29
File
https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/SDG_BulkDownloads_E_All_Data_(Normalized).zip
Fetched
2026-10-04 (automatically), 4,721,843 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 ef0358f2cc8cb786f811f5347818284b6e186b1ce4330f788c7e6d7142fb751eETag "197aaefa82038dd11b87f1964f7f77b6" · Last-Modified Tue, 29 Sep 2026 07:16:22 GMT
Copies
No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
Cite the producer
FAO. 2026. FAOSTAT. Accessed on 5 October 2026. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data Licence: CC-BY-4.0.
Producer
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division · FAOSTAT agrifood emissions, livestock emissions, emissions intensities, land use and food loss
Version
2026-09-29
File
https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/datasets_E.json
Fetched
2026-10-05 (automatically), 109,120 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 008f475c971a7770c69b1bc48f1c3a5fa8bf3873e762d6e1e9516bb0a700ebdaETag W/"157c9ec8e5eea09a02497cc10f67bcdb" · Last-Modified Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:49:35 GMT
Copies
No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
Cite the producer
FAO. 2026. FAOSTAT. Accessed on 5 October 2026. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

What was done to it

  1. Read SDG_BulkDownloads_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv from FAOSTAT's SDGB bulk zip. The vintage is the domain's DateUpdate, 29 September 2026, from FAOSTAT's bulk-download catalogue (datasets_E.json), whose entry names this zip and gives FileRows 478,304, the number of data rows in this file. The zip was last modified on the server on Tue, 29 Sep 2026 07:16:22 GMT.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/food/faostat_food_loss.py · code sha256 9d21044637cd8272… · inputs ef0358f2cc8c… 008f475c971a…

  2. Kept the rows of the five "12.3.1a Food loss percentage" items (total and four commodity groups), element "Value" (code 6121), unit "%", 2015–2024, for WLD; values are published as printed.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/food/faostat_food_loss.py · code sha256 9d21044637cd8272… · inputs ef0358f2cc8c… 008f475c971a…

  3. Left out FAO regional and analytical groups (Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Caribbean, Central America, Central Asia, Central Asia and Southern Asia, Eastern Africa, Eastern Asia, Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia, Eastern Europe, Europe, Land Locked Developing Countries (LLDCs), Latin America and the Caribbean, Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Melanesia, Micronesia, Middle Africa, Northern Africa, Northern America, Northern America and Europe, Northern Europe, Oceania, Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand, Polynesia, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), South America, South-eastern Asia, Southern Africa, Southern Asia, Southern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Africa, Western Asia, Western Asia and Northern Africa, Western Europe). Their values are never re-assigned to other entities.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/food/faostat_food_loss.py · code sha256 9d21044637cd8272… · inputs ef0358f2cc8c… 008f475c971a…

  4. Every value used carries FAO's flag A, which the file's codebook defines as "Official value".

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/food/faostat_food_loss.py · code sha256 9d21044637cd8272… · inputs ef0358f2cc8c… 008f475c971a…

  5. 50 of the values carry FAO's note that before July 2022 the series was disseminated under the SDG code "AG_FLS_IDX".

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/food/faostat_food_loss.py · code sha256 9d21044637cd8272… · inputs ef0358f2cc8c… 008f475c971a…

What it covers

Geography
World
Basis
SDG 12.3.1a food loss percentage (FAO custodian): losses from post-harvest up to, but not including, retail, as a share of production weighted by economic value (international dollar prices). Pre-harvest losses and waste at retail, in food service and in households (SDG 12.3.1b) are not included.
Unit
percent of food produced, by economic value (%)