Food loss and waste along the value chain of food products in Ukraine

Purpose. The purpose of the study was to establish the amount of food losses and food waste in Ukraine in 2016, which will, in the future, develop proposals to reduce food losses and food waste. To achieve this goal, the amount of food losses and food waste was determined in terms of products and regions at each stage of the food chain of creation of additional value of products in physical volume and kilocalories. Methodology / approach. Actual volumes of food losses and food waste are calculated according to the official statistics of Ukraine (State Statistics Service of Ukraine) according to the FAO methodology, which is based on calculations of elements of supply (production, import and export, stocks) defining domestic consumption and elements of use (consumption, forage, seeds, processing, waste), which determines the nutrition (fresh and after processing), taking into account weight percentages of food losses and food waste (as a percentage of what is included in for each stage) for Europe and the conversion factor. Calculations are made in the following way: types of products (potatoes, vegetables, cereals, milk, fruits, meat); regions with their ranking and in relation to the averaged and general indicators of the country; stages of the food chain creating an additional cost of production (production, processing and packaging, delivery and sale, consumption). The volume and structure of food losses and food waste are determined in physical volume and kilocalories. Results. It was established that in the Kyiv region, the share of food losses and food waste for all types of investigated products exceeds the region's share of food production. The share of food losses and food waste in Vinnytsya, Volyn, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovograd, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Kherson, Khmelnytskiy and Chernivtsi regions is higher than the averaged data in Ukraine. Instead, in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions there is an excess of the share of production by these regions over the share of losses in food and food waste. Such variability is determined by the volume of production and, consequently, losses and waste of grain crops, because this group occupies the largest proportion in terms of its conversion into kilocalories. Originality / scientific novelty. Experimental studies to assess food losses and food waste in Ukraine, identified according to the FAO methodology for all regions of Ukraine by major food groups (grain, potatoes, vegetables, fruits and fruits, milk, meat) at each stage of the food chain (production, storage, processing and packaging, delivery and sale, consumption) were further developed. Practical value / implications. The results will allow developing proposals for reducing food losses and food waste in the country as a whole and for each region, taking into account their peculiarities.