IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i24p7146-d297598.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Is Missing in Food Loss and Waste Analyses? A Close Look at Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Ren Jie Zhang

    (School of Finance and Accounting, Fuzhou University of International Studies and Trade, Fuzhou 350202, China)

  • Brian Lee

    (Department of Agricultural Economics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan)

  • Hung-Hao Chang

    (Department of Agricultural Economics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan)

Abstract

Food loss and waste (FLW) has been the subject of significant research, with recent empirical evidence analyzing the determinants of FLW in many different countries. Much of this literature examines FLW at the farm, food processing, and consumer level. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study thus far has addressed this issue at food wholesale markets. This paper fills this knowledge gap by examining food loss at fruit and vegetable wholesale markets. Using a dataset with individual auction transactions from Taiwan, we examine the extent to which average daily market prices, product quality, and disaster shocks are associated with food loss. Results point to a negative effect of daily market prices on food loss. Furthermore, disaster shocks can lead to greater food loss, particularly typhoons. These effects are heterogeneous across the distribution for the weight of food loss.

Suggested Citation

  • Ren Jie Zhang & Brian Lee & Hung-Hao Chang, 2019. "What Is Missing in Food Loss and Waste Analyses? A Close Look at Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Markets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:24:p:7146-:d:297598
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7146/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7146/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johnson, Lisa K. & Bloom, J. Dara & Dunning, Rebecca D. & Gunter, Chris C. & Boyette, Michael D. & Creamer, Nancy G., 2019. "Farmer harvest decisions and vegetable loss in primary production," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    2. Johnson, Lisa K. & Dunning, Rebecca D. & Gunter, Chris C. & Dara Bloom, J. & Boyette, Michael D. & Creamer, Nancy G., 2018. "Field measurement in vegetable crops indicates need for reevaluation of on-farm food loss estimates in North America," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 136-142.
    3. Buzby, Jean C. & Farah-Wells, Hodan & Hyman, Jeffrey, 2014. "The Estimated Amount, Value, and Calories of Postharvest Food Losses at the Retail and Consumer Levels in the United States," Economic Information Bulletin 164262, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Juliane Jörissen & Carmen Priefer & Klaus-Rainer Bräutigam, 2015. "Food Waste Generation at Household Level: Results of a Survey among Employees of Two European Research Centers in Italy and Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-21, March.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    6. Danyi Qi & Brian E Roe, 2016. "Household Food Waste: Multivariate Regression and Principal Components Analyses of Awareness and Attitudes among U.S. Consumers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, July.
    7. Buchinsky, Moshe, 1995. "Estimating the asymptotic covariance matrix for quantile regression models a Monte Carlo study," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 303-338, August.
    8. Secondi, Luca & Principato, Ludovica & Laureti, Tiziana, 2015. "Household food waste behaviour in EU-27 countries: A multilevel analysis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 25-40.
    9. Minten, Bart & Reardon, Thomas & Singh, K.M. & Sutradhar, Rajib, 2012. "The New and Changing Roles of Cold Storages in the Potato Supply Chain in Bihar," MPRA Paper 61109, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 Sep 2014.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lucie K. Ozanne & Paul W. Ballantine & Aimee McMaster, 2022. "Understanding Food Waste Produced by University Students: A Social Practice Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Jiang, J.-Q. & Yu, T. & Wang, Z.-H. & Qi, D.-M & Huang, W.-Z, 2018. "Analyzing the Size and Affecting Factors of Household Food Waste in China," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277551, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Theodoridis, Prokopis K. & Zacharatos, Theofanis V., 2022. "Food waste during Covid- 19 lockdown period and consumer behaviour – The case of Greece," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Efrat Elimelech & Eyal Ert & Ofira Ayalon, 2019. "Exploring the Drivers behind Self-Reported and Measured Food Wastage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-19, October.
    5. Ovidija Eičaitė & Gitana Alenčikienė & Ingrida Pauliukaitytė & Alvija Šalaševičienė, 2021. "Eat or Throw Away? Factors Differentiating High Food Wasters from Low Food Wasters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-16, September.
    6. Yu, Yang & Jaenicke, Edward C., 2021. "The effect of sell-by dates on purchase volume and food waste," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Brenna Ellison & Linlin Fan & Norbert L.W. Wilson, 2022. "Is it more convenient to waste? Trade‐offs between grocery shopping and waste behaviors," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(S1), pages 75-89, November.
    8. Claudia Giordano & Fabrizio Alboni & Luca Falasconi, 2019. "Quantities, Determinants, and Awareness of Households’ Food Waste in Italy: A Comparison between Diary and Questionnaires Quantities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-15, June.
    9. Cantaragiu Ramona, 2019. "The Impact of Gender on Food Waste at the Consumer Level," Studia Universitatis „Vasile Goldis” Arad – Economics Series, Sciendo, vol. 29(4), pages 41-57, December.
    10. Marzena Tomaszewska & Beata Bilska & Danuta Kołożyn-Krajewska, 2022. "The Influence of Selected Food Safety Practices of Consumers on Food Waste Due to Its Spoilage," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-22, July.
    11. Matthew James Grainger & Lusine Aramyan & Simone Piras & Thomas Edward Quested & Simone Righi & Marco Setti & Matteo Vittuari & Gavin Bruce Stewart, 2018. "Model selection and averaging in the assessment of the drivers of household food waste to reduce the probability of false positives," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, February.
    12. Heng, Yan & House, Lisa, 2022. "Consumers’ perceptions and behavior toward food waste across countries," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 25(2), March.
    13. Sabine Ludwig-Ohm & Walter Dirksmeyer & Kathrin Klockgether, 2019. "Approaches to Reduce Food Losses in German Fruit and Vegetable Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-21, November.
    14. Azzurra Annunziata & Massimiliano Agovino & Aniello Ferraro & Angela Mariani, 2020. "Household Food Waste: A Case Study in Southern Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-13, February.
    15. Lingfei Wang & Yuqin Yang & Guoyan Wang, 2022. "The Clean Your Plate Campaign: Resisting Table Food Waste in an Unstable World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-17, April.
    16. Thyberg, Krista L. & Tonjes, David J., 2016. "Drivers of food waste and their implications for sustainable policy development," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 110-123.
    17. Elżbieta Goryńska-Goldmann & Michał Gazdecki & Krystyna Rejman & Joanna Kobus-Cisowska & Sylwia Łaba & Robert Łaba, 2020. "How to Prevent Bread Losses in the Baking and Confectionery Industry?—Measurement, Causes, Management and Prevention," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, December.
    18. Vera Amicarelli & Christian Bux, 2021. "Food waste in Italian households during the Covid-19 pandemic: a self-reporting approach," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(1), pages 25-37, February.
    19. Principato, Ludovica & Secondi, Luca & Cicatiello, Clara & Mattia, Giovanni, 2022. "Caring more about food: The unexpected positive effect of the Covid-19 lockdown on household food management and waste," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PA).
    20. Kelsey D. Meagher & Anne Gillman & David C. Campbell & Edward S. Spang, 2020. "Relational and Logistical Dimensions of Agricultural Food Recovery: Evidence from California Growers and Recovery Organizations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-18, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:24:p:7146-:d:297598. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.