Post-harvest, farmers are vulnerable to storage losses due to mycotoxins, infestation, rodents or exposure to moisture/oxygen.
Food storage losses and wastage can affect the margins for players in the HORECA-QSR industry. Also, retention of aroma, flavor and texture is also critical to deliver customer delight.
Retaining inherent characteristics of ingredients such as flavor, aroma and texture is important to maintain quality of ingredients for suppliers. Losses in storage and transport could also adversely impact the margins of ingredient suppliers.
Storage losses of raw material and finished products means lesser margins for food processors and manufacturers. Adding preservatives has its own limitations and companies cannot take advantage of lower food ingredient prices, if the shelf-life is shorter
Internal storage losses result in lower margins for retailers, especially organic food retailers who increase the shelf life by adding artificial preservatives
Given the shorter shelf life of food products, traders cannot always take the advantage of price fluctuations and are sometimes forced to sell their stock at lower prices.Â