Figure 8.20: Make-up of total food waste in developed and developing countries
Developing countries
Figure 8.21: Share of global production volumes traded internationally in 2014
USA UK 0% On-farm Food Service 50%
Transport and processing
Home and municipal
Retail, food service and home and municipal (subnational government sphere) categories are presented together for developing countries.
Source: Godfray et al. (2010).
Some low-income food-deficit countries have capacity to increase food productivity. But in others, including those where food insecurity is high – for example, Eritrea, Burundi and Somalia – food availability from domestic production is falling and the capacity to increase production is limited (Fader et al.
100% Non-traded Retail Traded Source: Chatham House (2017); FAO (2017b).
2016). Most developing countries have become increasingly reliant on imports to meet domestic demand, a trend that will likely continue through to 2050 (Alexandratos et al. 2012; Figure 8.22).
Global food supply has become dependent on the growing trade of a small number of crops grown in a few ‘breadbasket’ regions with increasing specialization (Khoury et al. 2014). This has led to lower food prices, with food-deficit countries benefiting from these food imports. However, the geographic
Figure 8.22: Developing countries: net cereals trade (million tons)
100 150 200 250 300 350
50 0
-50
-350 -300 -250 -200 -150 -100
1970 1980 Net imports 1990 2000 Net exports
Net cereal imports have increased since 1970 and are expected to rise. Source: Alexandratos et al. (2012).
