Crop loss is counted at dispatch, but it rarely happens there
Updated: Oct 28
Most growers know what they lift and what they sell. The difference between the two gets a single line in the accounts. It is usually booked at dispatch, because that is where somebody is counting. It is rarely where the crop went. Nor is the gap small. WRAP's study of UK primary production, published in 2019 using 2017 data, put food surplus and waste on farms at 3.6 million tonnes a year. That is about 7% of production, worth around £1.2 billion. The waste alone, the part ploughed back, composted or sent to anaerobic digestion, came to 1.6 million tonnes, worth some £650 million.
For field vegetables the share is higher. WRAP estimated that 15.7% of the carrot harvest was wasted, 17.3% of onions, 13% of cabbage and around a quarter of lettuce. Defra's horticulture statistics value the UK field vegetable crop at £1,686 million in 2025. A few points of loss is therefore a large sum. For any one business the question is not whether it loses crop. It is where, and what each lost tonne had already cost by then.
The loss is spread across six handovers
Follow one load from the field to the lorry. Write down every point where the crop is handled, held or judged. In most operations that means lifting, field transport, intake, store, grading and packing, then loading. Each has its own way of losing crop. There is damage at lifting, and delay between field and cooling. There are store conditions, and grading standards that shift with the customer. And there is over-packing, to make sure a pallet passes the weight check.
In WRAP's work, farmers named quality specifications as one of the main causes of waste. The study counted grading, washing, packing and customer rejections within its scope. The FAO's State of Food and Agriculture report for 2019 found the same pattern on a world scale: around 14% of food is lost after harvest and before it reaches retail. The common thread is plain enough. Loss builds up at handovers where nobody is weighing.
If loss is only recorded at dispatch, everything upstream looks perfect.
Four weighing points tell you more than a year of dispatch figures
Finding the loss does not need a new system. It needs a scale, a clipboard and a few weeks of discipline during the season. I would use four points:
Intake. Weigh a sample of trailers or boxes as they come off the field, and note the time lifted and the time into cooling.
Out of store. Weigh the same lots, or a fair sample, as they leave store. The difference is shrinkage, rots and store damage.
After grading. Record what goes to outgrade, stockfeed or waste, and write down the reason for each rejection: size, shape, skin finish, damage or disease.
At packing. Check finished pack weights against spec on a sample. A few grams of giveaway per pack adds up over a season.
Run it on two or three main lines for four to six weeks. The aim is not a perfect mass balance. It is to see which step accounts for most of the gap. WRAP's 2025 key facts update gives a central estimate of 1.6 million tonnes for on-farm waste, but a range of 0.9 to 3.5 million tonnes. If the national figure carries that much uncertainty, a single dispatch number on one farm will reveal very little.
A tonne lost late costs far more than a tonne lost early
Once you know where the loss happens, value it at that point. Crop lost at grading has already carried the cost of growing, lifting, haulage and storage. Crop lost at packing has carried nearly all of it, labour and packaging included. The later the loss, the dearer each tonne.
A worked example, with round numbers that are illustrative only. Say a line costs £150 a tonne to grow and lift, £15 to haul to the yard, £25 to store through the winter and £60 to wash, grade and pack. On 1,000 tonnes lifted:
3% lost in the field or at intake: 30 t at £150 = £4,500.
4% lost in store: 40 t at £190 = £7,600.
6% outgraded and not sold: 60 t at £190 = £11,400, less anything recovered as stockfeed.
1% lost to giveaway and rejects at packing: 10 t at £250 = £2,500.
In this example, store and grading account for nearly three-quarters of the £26,000 cost of loss. Yet field loss is the one people see on the day. On your own figures the answer may be quite different. The point is to work it out rather than assume it. Where the crop would otherwise have sold, add the lost sale value on top.
Most fixes are about timing, handling and specification
Sometimes the answer is equipment. More often it is not. The usual causes are humbler. Crop waits too long between lifting and cooling. Drop heights at intake and on the grader are too great. Store temperature and ventilation are not matched to the crop. Or a grading standard has drifted tighter than the customer actually asks. Each costs little to change, once the loss has a number against it.
Specification is the one to watch. When a customer tightens its spec, the outgrade rises and the cost stays on the farm. Knowing your outgrade rate by reason and by customer turns a vague complaint into a figure. That figure can go into the next price conversation. Or it can help you find a second outlet for the grade-outs.
Where to begin
Pick two or three main lines and set up the four weighing points for the next four to six weeks.
Record grading rejects by reason, not just by weight.
Build a simple cost per tonne at each step from last season's accounts.
Value the loss at each point and rank the steps by money, not by tonnes.
Take the costliest step, test one change such as faster cooling, a lower drop height or a spec check with the customer, then weigh again.
Sources
Figures are taken from the sources listed and were correct at the time of writing. Where rules are described, check the latest official guidance and take qualified advice before acting.
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