The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) in 2021 reported that food waste, alias food waste, in Indonesia over the past two decades has reached 115 to 184 kilograms per capita annually.
The food sector that experiences the most food chain wastage is fruit and vegetables. In fact, in the Asia-Pacific region, nearly half of fruits and vegetables are wasted or lost before they reach consumers.
Bappenas also reports that, the economy due to loss and wastage of food ranges from IDR 213 trillion to IDR 551 trillion per year. This amount is equivalent to 4-5 percent of Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is one of the concerns of the CEO of Fresh Fruit and GTM, Cindyanto Kristian.
“Indonesia still has a lot of food waste, for example fruit. The fruit that is planted after the harvest is not sold well and is of good quality,” said Cindy at the 27th anniversary of Sunpride at the Pakubuwono Hotel, Jakarta, Thursday (22/12).
For this reason, Sunpride seeks to create a fresh fruit ecosystem in Indonesia. The fresh fruit ecosystem that is the focus of Sunpride aims to maximize fruit production from farmers.
The goal is to reduce food waste. This ecosystem can also ensure that the quality of the harvested fruits is well preserved to the consumer’s table.
With a commitment to a sustainable circular economy, Sunpride works closely with the government and farmers. locally to realize the ecosystem.
“From one banana tree, we cannot harvest and eat all of the fruit. So, how can we make one banana tree, even though we can’t use all of it, it can be useful and nothing is wasted. That is one of our commitments in the circular economy,” said Cindy.
Apart from the high record of food waste, the irony of fruit farmers in Indonesia also appears during the main harvest.
“In developed countries, during the main harvest the farmers smile happily. However, in Indonesia, farmers are crying because the price has fallen and the fruit is not sold, which results in food waste,” said Cindy.
Sunpride’s solution for this is to calculate product capacity and develop a supply chain from farmers to markets. This includes the type of packing, the type of carrier transportation, and the time of harvest.
In addition, Sunpride is also currently developing Sunpride blockchain traceability technology for some of their flagship products.
With blockchain traceability, Sunpride can determine the condition of the fruit at every stage, from the farmer to the store, thereby maintaining the quality of the fruit delivered.
To help improve the village to national economy, Sunpride continues to develop its partnerships with local fruit farmers in partnerships.
“There are three forms of our collaboration to improve the fresh fruit ecosystem in Indonesia,” said Jane Fransisca, CEO of Farmers Empowerment & Partnership.
