“Addressing Food Loss and Waste Across the Food Supply Chain”

Call for Papers – Special Issue: “Addressing Food Loss and Waste Across the Food Supply Chain”

Journal: Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies (JADEE)
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Submission deadline: 30 April 2026

This special issue tackles food loss and waste (FLW) across the agricultural and food supply chain, with a strong focus on developing and emerging economies. It moves beyond viewing FLW as a purely technical or logistical problem and instead explores how agribusiness strategies, consumer behaviour, policy, and innovation can reduce waste and turn “waste” into value‑creating opportunities.

Why this issue matters

• Globally, about one‑third of all food produced is lost or wasted, leading to immense inefficiencies, environmental harm, and heightened pressure on food security and climate‑action goals.

• In many developing and emerging economies, post‑harvest losses, weak infrastructure, and limited cold‑chain access exacerbate FLW, yet these contexts also offer rich sites for innovation, circular‑business models, and community‑based interventions.

• Tackling FLW is directly linked to SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), making this a high‑priority area for agribusiness and policy research.

Core themes and research topics

The SI welcomes interdisciplinary, empirical, and case‑oriented work at the intersection of agribusiness, supply‑chain management, marketing, policy, and innovation. Key topics include:

• Quantifying and mapping FLW

  • Measurement and spatial/temporal mapping of losses across farm, post‑harvest, processing, distribution, retail, and consumption nodes.

• Drivers of FLW

  • Behavioural, institutional, and economic factors (e.g., price signals, incentives, norms, market structures) that cause loss or waste at different stages.

• Innovation and technology for FLW reduction

  • Applications of AI, blockchain, big data, IoT, and digital traceability to improve visibility, forecasting, and management of FLW.

  • Innovations in food preservation, storage, packaging, and logistics adapted to resource‑constrained settings.

• Circular economy and valorisation

  • Circular‑business models that valorise food waste (e.g., animal feed, compost, biogas, upcycling, by‑product markets).

• Policy, governance, and private‑sector responses

  • Impact of regulations, standards, and incentives on FLW reduction; role of agribusinesses, entrepreneurs, and cooperatives in designing and scaling FLW‑interventions.

• Consumer behaviour and food‑service contexts

  • Household and food‑service‑level behaviours that drive waste and design of nudging, segmentation, and communication campaigns to prevent waste.

• Case studies and comparative insights

  • In‑depth studies from diverse economies (rural/urban, smallholder‑ vs. corporate‑led value chains) and cross‑country comparisons.

Guest editors

• Prof. Prokopis Theodoridis, Hellenic Open University, Greece

• Dr. Theofanis Zacharatos, Hellenic Open University, Greece

Submission details

• Submission platform: ScholarOne Manuscripts for JADEE:
  https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jadee

• When submitting, select the special issue title “Addressing Food Loss and Waste Across the Food Supply Chain” in the “Please select the issue you are submitting to” field.

• Submission window: 1 October 2025 – 30 April 2026

• Manuscripts must be original and not under consideration elsewhere, and authors must follow the journal’s Author Guidelines.

This special issue is ideal for agribusiness, food‑systems, development‑studies, and sustainability‑research scholars who wish to advance practically oriented research on reducing food loss and waste and building more resilient, circular agri‑food systems.

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