Postharvest losses from temperature during transit: Evidence from a million truckloads

Abstract Around 13% of the global food supply is lost along production and supply chains including postharvest losses. We estimate the effect of weather and climate change on postharvest losses from data on 1.4 million truckloads of processing tomatoes in California. Our reduced‐form estimation strategy compares processing tomatoes grown in the same field in the same season but experience different weather and traffic conditions during transit. Hot temperatures during transportation damage product quality, particularly when hot temperatures coincide with heavy traffic. When we compare best‐ and worst‐case temperature and traffic conditions, the average rate of damage doubles but the economic effects are modest. We predict climate change will cause a negligible increase in postharvest losses by century's end. We add to prior work focused on farm output with little attention paid to effects of extreme weather and climate change on products after they leave the farm.