Despite the critical role aquatic food systems play in nutrition and food security worldwide, these value chains encounter significant loss and waste challenges. In 2021, approximately 23.8 million tonnes of aquatic foods were lost or wasted, representing 14.8% of global production.

This insight underpins the Investigating Global Aquatic Food Loss and Waste white paper, which delivers updated estimates and thorough analysis across the value chain. The paper is a collaborative effort by the World Economic Forum’s Ocean Action Agenda, the World Resources Institute and MarFishEco, supported by the UK Government’s Blue Planet Fund. It highlights the urgent need for interventions across supply chain actors, identifying hotspots of loss and waste in terms of region, species group and product type.

The paper calls on policy-makers, industry and civil society for collective, targeted actions, offering strategies to significantly reduce aquatic food loss and waste, thereby enhancing the sustainability and resilience of global food systems.