Find out the key statistics that reveal the true cost of food waste,  and the opportunity we have to change it.

Use these facts to:

  • Build urgency in your business, policy advocacy, and media conversations
  • Connect the dots between food waste and climate, hunger, and the economy
  • Motivate action by showing how solvable and high-return food waste reduction, when you implement best practice actions across your business
  • 1
    Global waste scale

    1/3 of all food produced globally gets wasted – that’s 2.5 billion tonnes annually. (FAO 2011)

  • 2
    Global climate impact

    If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s 3rd largest climate polluter – behind only the US and China. (FAO, 2014)

  • 3
    Food insecurity

    1 in 4 New Zealand children don’t have enough food at home, while we throw away 320,000+ tonnes of food into Class 1 landfills annually. (MOH, 2024; MfE, 2022)

  • 4
    Household economic impact

    Every New Zealand household wastes $1,510 worth of food each year. (Rabobank/KiwiHarvest, 2023)

  • 5
    Business economic impact

    Food businesses lose 5.6% of their total sales to waste – money straight into the bin. (Capgemini, 2022)

  • 6
    Food system emissions

    Food waste accounts for 50% of all emissions from our entire food system. (Zhu et al., 2023)

  • 7
    Agricultural resource waste

    30% of farmland and 25% of water globally is used to grow food that gets thrown away. (Flanagan et al., 2019)

  • 8
    Public awareness

    86% of New Zealanders believe wasting food is wrong – yet we keep doing it. (Rabobank/KiwiHarvest, 2023)

  • 9
    Consumer expectations

    61% of consumers expect businesses to do more about food waste, with 57% disappointed in companies that don’t care. (Capgemini Research Institute, 2022)

  • 10
    Climate policy gap

    Only 11% of countries include food waste in their climate action plans, despite its massive impact. (Capgemini, 2022)