Your Excellencies, Respected Media, Ladies & Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests, I am pleased to welcome you to today’s press conference held to announce the launching of the ‘National Campaign to Stop Food Loss’ developed in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. I extend my sincerest thanks to various media representatives present today for their continuously delivering our key messages to the public and raising their awareness on different important issues.

Thanks to our wise leaders led by H.H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE (May God protect him), whose unwavering efforts include strategic management and preservation of our God-given sustainable riches, upholding its international commitment and moral responsibility, the UAE plays an important role in the global eradication of poverty and hunger through humanitarian and development aid. In fact, the UAE has been crowned the world's top humanitarian donor in 2014. Furthermore, the country with its advanced logistics infrastructure serves as an important center for the storage, transfer and distribution of food aid to other countries during disasters and emergencies.

I want also to commend H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, for launching ‘Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives,’ one of the largest development and community foundations in the Middle East region.

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In spite of the success achieved by FAO in reducing global hunger, we still have to address the food requirements of about 800 million people.

The number of people going hungry remains the largest by all standards and we waste almost 1.3 billion tons of food yet every year. It is certainly enough to eradicate global hunger permanently and ensure food security for all.

In addition, the financial losses of food wastage amount to trillion dollars. Aside from financial costs, we are also wasting our land, water and energy resources and other production supplies on top of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, pollutants and others wastes.

We incur all these losses in every stage of food preparation, from production to transport, packaging and storage to consumption.  We waste our resources due to various factors such as agricultural practices, harvesting, storage, packaging, and market mechanisms and prices. Even the shape of food products influences initial customer impressions. Shapes don’t always mean difference in food taste and nutritional value.

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Over the recent past years, the UAE has intensified its efforts to promote food security by raising public awareness on food waste reduction and consumption.

In this regard, H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has called for shunning all aspects of food and drink extravagance especially during weddings and other celebrations. His call, along with ‘Save Grace’ project launched in 2005 by H.H. Sheikha Shamsa Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan in coordination with the UAE Red Crescent, has received global attention and gained popularity abroad.

The launching of the ‘National Campaign to Stop Food Loss’ is in line with the sustainable development goals adopted during the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit  held in New York last month when participants called for the substantial reduction of food losses in production and supply chains by 2030.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that there is an approximately 800 million hungry and undernourished people in the world amidst large amounts of food losses and waste. This demonstrates moral crisis which must be quickly addressed through concerted global efforts under FAO’s leadership. Efforts should include an exchange of scientific knowledge, technology and expertise between developed and developing countries, without forgetting to emphasize the importance role of individuals and groups in achieving this goal.

Thank you & Best Regards,