To examine the linkages between consumption and production of the 1.68 million tonnes of food that is lost, we conduct a food loss footprint analysis using vegetable production, shipment, and market data. First, by building a sub-national MRIO table particularly addressing losses of the 14 chosen types of vegetables, we map the losses from three layers of the supply chain: food loss at production sites, intended demand by sector, and intended consumers by agent (final demand sectors).
The total of the food losses at each layer of the supply chain is equal to the total vegetable food loss (1.68 million tonnes). The left-hand bar in Figure 5.3 indicates the proportion of the total food loss (q) of vegetables in agricultural production layer, determined by differences in production and shipment (Producers’ responsibility by prefecture). The results indicate that a large amount of the food lost at production sites is generated in Hokkaido, as described in Section 5.3.1.
The middle bar in Figure 5.3 indicates how much of the vegetables discarded at production sites could be presumed to be delivered to the following categories (consumers’ responsibility by intermediate demand sector): direct demand for the 14 types of vegetables, other agricultural sectors, food manufacturing, food-related business and social service industry, restaurant and food service industry, and other sectors. The demand for vegetables by the 19 sectors is estimated by “my” (see the details of the calculation in Section 5.2.3). Then, we calculate the proportion of total food loss in the demand by sector to make the graph. The graph reveals that sales of vegetables in markets for direct consumption contribute only 3.6% of the total food loss while more than 90% of the vegetables discarded in fields are intended to be used for industrial purposes in the supply chain. About 46% are intended for use by restaurants and food services while about 31% are intended to be used for manufacturing meat products, seasonings, noodles, breads and confectioneries, as well as canned and processed vegetable foods. Food-related businesses and the social service industry, including accommodation services and social service providers such as hotels, and medical, health care and welfare facilities where food is served as one of their services, contribute 14% of the total food loss.
The right-hand bar is estimated by post-multiplying the multiplier (m) by the following three components of final demand (consumers’ responsibility by agent) (see the details of the calculation in Section 5.2.3); households (y of households); government (y of government spending); and other (y of inventory) (Figure 5.3). The results indicate that almost all the vegetables discarded in the field are intended to be consumed by domestic households through sales, or to be used in processed and prepared foods made in food manufacturing and pro- vided through food-related service industries, or for the restaurant and food service industry. 13% of the total food loss is linked to government expenditures on food-related social services to the community including education- related and medical services (hospitalisation) and social welfare. Final demand in other sectors indicates expenses for stocks of food manufacturing products such as preserved agricultural foods, lunch boxes and prepared frozen foods.
Figure 5.3. Food loss at three stages of the supply chain.
Although we identify which sectors have responsibility for food loss for the 14 vegetables from both a production perspective and a demand-side perspective in the bar graph
above (Figure 5.3), it remains unclear which sectors bear responsibility for food losses at the regional level. Therefore, we break down the responsibility for (contribution to) food loss by prefecture and by supply chain, and map the consumers’ responsibility (Figure 5.4). Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi and Saitama prefectures have four of the five largest population in Japan (Stat 2014b), share high responsibility for the food loss, as shown in dark red in Figure 5.4. Hokkaido, Saitama and Aichi, the top three food manufacturing prefectures as of 2012 (METI 2014) also contribute a certain amount to the food loss. The 14 types of vegetables are intended to be delivered to those regions for use in producing or serving food-related products, or to be sold for vegetable consumption. The bar chart in the upper-left side in Figure 5.4 shows the proportion of food loss by supply chain. We select regions responsible for more than 50,000 tonnes of food loss for inclusion here. The graph demonstrates that consumption of vegetables through restaurants and food services is high in those regions.
Figure 5.4. Consumers’ responsibility for food loss of 14 types of vegetables (tonnes).
Note: Darker colours denote prefectures with higher contributions to food loss.
To examine in more detail which layers of the supply chain are the intended destinations where the vegetables could be consumed, we analyse the multipliers and final demand by prefecture and commodity. Consumers’ responsibility for food loss in restaurants and the food service industry is larger in Hokkaido, Saitama, Gunma, Aichi, Tokyo and Osaka
>=50 40-49 30-39 20-29 10-19 <10 2. Tokyo 3. Saitama 4. Ibaraki 5. Gunma 9. Chiba 10. Fukushima 11. Nagano 1. Hokkaido 6. Aichi 7. Hyogo 8. Osaka 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1. H okka ido 2. T okyo 3. S aitam a 4. Ib arak i 5. G unm a 6. A ichi 7. H yogo 8. O saka 9. C hiba 10. F ukus him a 11. N agan o
Vegetables Other Crops
Food Manufacture Food Service
Eating Service Other Industry
than in other regions. Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi, Saitama and Chiba are the top five areas of Japan in gross revenue for restaurants and the food service industry as of 2012 (Stat 2014a). While Gunma prefecture has a high multiplier and low final demand in the industry, the multipliers for Tokyo, Aichi and Osaka are low, although large amounts of final demand exist in those regions. The multiplier indicates the amount of food loss embodied in a value unit of commodity produced. The result also indicates that their multipliers for the 14 types of vegetables is larger than any of the other sectors although there is low final demand. This implies that overproducing vegetables with high yields results in a significant amount of food loss.