Kiwis throwing away $3.2 bln of wasted food
The latest Rabobank-KiwiHarvest food waste survey was released earlier this week and found that while Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were a year ago, food waste continues to be a major problem with the estimated value of wasted food continuing to rise.
New Zealand Food Waste Survey, 2023
Despite cost-of-living pressures, the average New Zealand household reported wasting 12.2 per cent of the food they buy each week – back from 13.4 per cent last year. Incredibly, the $3.2 billion value of New Zealand’s annual food waste is equivalent to the cost of feeding around 688,000 Kiwis for an entire year.
The numbers are alarming but with the support of charities such as KiwiHarvest, together we can help minimise the impact of food waste.
We’ve been commissioning research into food waste since 2017 as part of our wider commitment to work alongside our rural customers to support sustainable food production and our global vision around global food security. In 2020, we teamed up with food rescue charity KiwiHarvest and over recent years we’ve worked closely alongside them to help raise awareness of the negative impacts of food waste and to educate New Zealanders on how they can reduce food waste in their homes.
To find out more about the 2023 Rabobank-KiwiHarvest food waste survey, see our Food Waste weboage.