Denmark is a place to be looked as sustainable and environment-friendly food production state and is ranked as one of the most efficient food production countries in the world.
A country with 62 percent farmland is able to feed three-time its current population (5.8 million according to 2018 report) but the country is taking extra measures with public private cooperation to ensure food is not wasted and each morsel reaches the mouth.
Lise Walbom, Chief Executive Officer of Food Nation, a public-private Danish food cluster, while briefing the Pakistani journalists spoke about the Food Nation's collaboration with private and public food enterprises and companies and said the purpose was to increase knowledge and innovation like enhancing agricultural production.
"We are not for profit and are working to promote Danish food products and solutions of tomorrow," she said. She also shared some alarming figures like each year, 1.6 billion tons of food worth about $1.2 trillion are lost or goes to waste - one-third of the total amount of food produced globally - saying Danish consumers have a food waste of 260,000 tons annually. This corresponds to 36% of the total food waste throughout the food chain.
"In order to meet these challenges, we are looking into good partnership, cooperation all around the world in order to meet big challenges that we are facing within agriculture and food sector." Lise Walbom said the Danish food products were exported to around 190 countries and they were always looking for new partners to cooperate with.
She said food cluster contributed to 25pc of the total export of goods of Denmark. In Denmark and also around the world food waste and loss was a big problem. Globally, more than one-third of food products is either lost or wasted.
Danish ingredient companies pay a key role in solving some of the largest food challenges the world is facing. In a few decades, the world population is expected to hit nine billion. To feed all these people, the global food production must become more efficient with higher utilization of raw materials.
Earlier while giving a presentation, Project Manager of Food Nation Maria Dyrby Nielsen informed the Pakistani media persons that Denmark with 7,314km coastline has a historical heritage of fishing nation and with quotas and regulation, this industry is intact and sustainability is ensured.
Denmark is strictly following the UN development goals SDG2, 12, 13 that are related with no poverty, zero hunger, responsible consumption and protection without least affecting the environment, said Maria Dyrby Nielsen.
"With world population constantly growing we need to produce in next 40 years as much food as was produced during last 8,000 years," she said. For countries like Pakistan it is time to adopt such technologies that could help in ensuring food for its population but also reducing on food waste and imbalance in its distributions.
Because of Danish advanced technologies and top quality food, around one billion people are consuming Danish ingredients, said Maria, adding because of Danish technology, 30 percent of total yogurt waste in Europe could be prevented.
To a question about Halal food in Denmark, Maria said in 2016, 101 million broilers were slaughtered in Denmark, corresponding to approximately 150,000 tons of chicken meat, and 95 percent of all Danish-produced broilers are slaughtered Halal, according to the Danish Agriculture & Food Council.
In Denmark, an NGO has also opened first ever food surplus supermarket with the name of Wefood which sells products at prices 30 to 50 percent cheaper than normal supermarket. However, the supermarket is selling expired products on the plea that they are still hygienic, she added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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