UNEP and Grace Preservation Foundation Sign MoU to Reduce Food Waste in Saudi Arabia
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – 15 April 2025 - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Regional Office for West Asia, and the Grace Preservation Foundation signed today a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen collaboration on promoting food waste reduction programmes and initiatives across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The MoU was signed in Riyadh by Mr. Sami Dimassi, UNEP’s Representative and Regional Director for West Asia, and Engineer Abdullah Binsaeed, Secretary General of the Grace Preservation Foundation. The agreement establishes a framework for cooperation in areas such as food waste tracking, measurement, and data analytics. It also contributes to the certification and award schemes for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food and beverage sector.
Saudi Arabia food waste is significant, generating close to 4 million tonnes of food waste annually, with an estimated cost of SR40 billion per year.
Building on UNEP’s Recipe of Change initiative in West Asia, this MoU will facilitate the development of awareness and educational programmes, including annual campaigns on Global UN Days and during key cultural and religious occasions, which are known for producing significant volumes of food waste in short periods.
During the signing ceremony, Mr. Dimassi reaffirmed UNEP’s commitment to sharing its technical expertise with the Foundation to support the design and implementation of targeted capacity-building programmes for key stakeholders, including NGOs.
Eng. Bin Saeed emphasized that this agreement aims to strengthen strategic partnerships to support and empower societal initiatives reach their goals, in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 on environment sustainability and food security.
This initiative represents a meaningful step toward achieving Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which calls for halving global food waste per capita by 2030.
