Carbon & Water Footprint of Oranges and Strawberries - SAI Platform

Federal Department of Economic Affairs FDEA
Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station ART
7 Conclusions
7.1 Approach and methodology
A total of 35 sources have been evaluated for oranges and 31 sources for strawberries with respect to
the carbon footprint. After a first evaluation 9 sources and 7 sources were retained for oranges and
strawberries, respectively. Since the system boundaries and the methodology differs between the
studies, a comparison of the references as well as deriving robust and detailed figures is difficult and
shows the limits of the approach. It is often not possible to determine, whether the differences are dues
to different countries of origin, different production systems or different methodology.
The WF resp. the VWC of the selected fruits and for the selected countries is only reported in one
source and given as a single value with no subdivision into the green and blue component (Chapagain
& Hoekstra, 2004a, b). Data on both components will be published in about one year from now on
(see section 3.1.2), but it would also be possible to calculate them according to the method applied in
(Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008). However, this was out of scope of the current project. Values for the
grey VWC are not published, but polluted water is a more and more important factor in agriculture.
The average VWC may vary significantly over time and space, especially for countries with a great
spatial variation of climate (e.g. China, USA). This fact is not accounted in the VWC as the
calculations of it are based on average climate data. Furthermore, the VWC is calculated for open
systems.
7.2 Carbon Footprint of Oranges and Strawberries
Oranges
The literature review showed that only a few publications report data on the CF of oranges for the
agricultural production. Some data are documented for the whole production chain of orange juice.
The agricultural production stage in these publications is either not specified at all or just reported as a
general value. According to the evaluated sources, the key factors determining the GHG emissions in
the agricultural production are:
• Country of origin: the reported values for Spain were higher than for Brazil and Italy (only one
source).
• Yield
• Fertiliser production and application (Beccali et al., 2009; Carbon Trust, 2008; Ribal et al., in
press; Sanjuán et al., 2005; Tropicana, 2009).
• Machinery and irrigation system the diesel use seems to be the main driver for the GHG
emissions in the production (Sanjuán et al., 2005).
Moreover, the GHG emissions differ depending on the fertilisers and pesticides applied, the
agricultural practices performed, the machinery and irrigation system used as well as on the
production system (i.e. IP and OF) (Ribal et al., in press; Sanjuán et al., 2005).
Strawberries
The review showed that only little data on the CF are available from published literature. Several
production techniques to grow strawberries are applied in the strawberry production (e.g. plastic
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