According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, 1.3 billion tons of edible food is wasted globally every year (FAO.org, 2016). This staggering amount not only puts food security at risk, but also spells out dire economic, social and environmental consequences.
It is for this reason that we at Savola World are working passionately to decrease food wastage by raising awareness about the threats it poses and by adopting internationally proven practices to drive sustainable behavior change toward optimal food resource management among our consumers and stakeholders.
Negaderha is food waste management and reduction program, which was developed to address food waste as a national issue. The program works conducting research concerning food wastage to obtain understanding of its drivers, actors, and volumes of food waste at a national level; and accordingly equip the target groups with the practical tools and tips to improve their food waste management knowledge and practices. Negaderha also aims to engage the consumers in reducing food wastage by promoted community campaigns that are based on the most effective global experiences; and aligned with 2030 Vision to contribute to ensuring sustainable food security for the Kingdom.
Negaderha forms strategic partnerships with various organizations across the different sectors. The program targets two main segments of society: the households and the HORECA (hotels, restaurants & cafes) sector. We also aim to expand our target groups in the upcoming stages of the program.
Field Research: Food Waste Quantification in KSA:
Savola World, - the platform of Sustainability and CSR Programs in The Savola Group- has undertaken research and studies to identify local social issues related to the business sector in line with 2030 Vision.The food waste issue has emerged as a priority and a social problem, especially as KSA is ranked of the world’s top food wasters according to the latest FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) report. Hence, Negaderha (Savola’s Food Waste Management Program) came out. Negaderha developed a research methodology for mapping and measuring the national food waste in the country, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and The Food Waste Resources Action Program (WRAP).The field studies were carried out in cooperation with an advisory and research agency with expertise in the Saudi market. The field research was based on quantitative and qualitative measures to accurately measure the volume of the wasted food by category and to identify the social behaviors associated with food waste of individuals from the middle-income class. You may check excerpts from the field research done as a launching phase of Negaderha:
At the initiation phase of Negaderha Program, a public awareness campaign was launched, which in turn aimed to educate the community in general and the Household in particular. The campaign provided awareness messages to housewives, parents and children alike, and aimed to highlight food waste as a national issue and then raised awareness and provided appropriate solutions to reduce it. The campaign was conducted on various media channels and social media platforms on two phases respectively:
During this phase, Negaderha communicated several key visuals and TV commercials, which highlight the latest food waste statistics in Saudi Arabia. The awareness messages at this phase were characterized by realistic and shocking accent in order to create a sense of self-responsibility for individuals within the target groups as well as to highlight the size of this problem and the consequent loss of materials, time and efforts.
During this phase, Negaderha revealed various key visuals and TV commercials that contained practical tips and tools to enable the target groups to embrace the behavioral change and new purchasing habits to reduce food waste. The program offers solutions tackling four main touchpoints: grocery shopping, storage tips, portion planning and leftover tips & recipes.
You may view the media materials below:
To effectively realize its goals, Negaderha is in collaboration with several local and international organizations to::
Below is a brief profile of all of Negaderha’s partners along with some insight into the details of their respective collaborations:
UNEP is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
At Savola Group we established an 18-month partnership with UNEP to utilize their global reach and technical expertise. In turn, the Group aims to provide strategic support and lead the transition in addressing excess food waste in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) through the comprehensive ‘Food Waste Prevention and Reduction’ program. This engagement seeks to garner the buy-in of regulators and enablers and scale these efforts on a national level through the delivery of specific related modules and the launch of a food waste prevention program in the KSA. The program addresses food waste that occurs at the household level on a daily basis through developing a community awareness program. The anticipated outcomes of this engagement are: an in-depth understanding of the drivers, actors, and volumes of food waste at national and household levels, an action plan for change in food waste generation, a consumer engagement campaign based on the most effective global experiences, and a framework for tracking food waste data and progress towards strategic objectives.
WRAP is a world leader in helping organizations achieve greater resource efficiency and it has a record of success. It provides information, tools and practical advice that help governments, businesses and consumers to act. Also, WRAP provides a safe, non-competitive space where businesses can share best practices and collaborate to deliver change. WRAP aims to reduce the amount of food wasted through its Love Food Hate Waste consumer behavioral change campaign. This campaign involves direct communication with consumers as well as working with the food industry and others, bringing the latter to make changes to products and the retail environment to make it easier for consumers to change their behavior. As part of its campaign, WRAP has developed brands, tools, tips, know-how, website content, digital apps and other intellectual property in the area of consumer food waste prevention.
To achieve maximum impact in its “Food Waste Prevention and Reduction Program” in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Savola decided to utilize international proven practices to drive behavioral change among its consumers and stakeholders. In this vein, Savola has partnered with WRAP to acquire a license to use their know-how which includes strategic guidelines, frameworks and specific tools and tips. Through this license, Savola is using certain Intellectual property of WRAP to enrich their own program.
SAGO works to achieve its vision in upgrading the grains sector and playing a prominent role in achieving the sustainable social and economic development in the Kingdom. The organization insures to guarantee the supply of high-quality wheat flour, through the active involvement in wheat procurement, storage, milling and subsidized flour distribution. The Saudi Grains Organization has contributed effectively in the national social development through raising industrial professional and technical awareness among Saudi youth and developing highly skilled technical cadres. The Organization continuously forms strategic partnerships with research centers, universities and national organizations and other international bodies and institutions regarding grains production, storage and milling, as well as fodder production in order to achieve food security and to serve the strategic objectives of the organization.:
Savola has signed with SAGO an MOU, which is considered the first of its-kind between the public and private sector in the Kingdom. The MOU was signed during the launch of the Index of Food Waste & Loss in the Kingdom. The event was under the patronage of the Minister of Environment, Water & Agriculture. Other ministers and specialists in this field also attended the event. The MOU between the two parties was inclusive of serving the strategic goals of the national vision and changing the common perception about the country of Saudi Arabia to be amongst the top in food saving rates. The MOU constitutes of two main objectives, first of which is the activation of the joint programs to enhance the role of cooperation between the sectors within this specific framework. The second objective is to support the National Committee of Reducing Food Waste & Loss. The terms of the MOU also included the development of innovative concepts and applications to raise the social awareness, activating the cooperation between the various sectors to exchange the visions in order to create strategic sustainable programs. In addition to establishing a culture of managing food waste, making an influence in the future generations and expanding the awareness to become on an individual, community and a national culture, that also includes the HORECA sector in Saudi Arabia.:
Ita’am is a Saudi-based, non-profit organization that is specialized in the food industry with the aim of preserving food. This organization started as an initiative by Saudi businessmen whose goal it was to save food by replicating the idea of food banks and applying it in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The organization promotes food-related culture; provides hands-on experience in safe preparation; works on raising awareness of food waste reduction through organizing and delivering specialized awareness workshops; and establishes agreements with hotels and wedding halls to preserve excess food after gatherings in order to deliver it to the underprivileged according to the best quality control and international standards.
Through its collaboration with Ita’am, Savola aims to expand its outreach by targeting the HORECA sector (the sector of the food industry referring to Hotels, Restaurants and Cafés). Both parties in this partnership seek to instill behavioral change, raise awareness and empower the business owners and employees in the HORECA sector with technical and operational guidelines and tips to minimize food wastage that may appear at any level of the food consumption cycle.
