ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Carbon Footprint Assessment of Sweet
Cherry Production: Hotspots
and Improvement Options
Grecia Bravo1, Diego López1, Marcia Vásquez2, Alfredo Iriarte3,4
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1School of Industrial Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de Talca,
Casilla 747, Talca, Chile
2Forestry Department of Environmental Management, Faculty of Forest Science, Universidad de Talca,
Casilla 747, Talca, Chile
3Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de Talca,
Casilla 747, Talca, Chile
4Chilean Food Processing Research Center (CEAP), R09I2001, Av. San Luis km 1, Talca, Chile
Submission date: 2016-08-09
Final revision date: 2016-09-22
Acceptance date: 2016-09-26
Online publication date: 2017-03-22
Publication date: 2017-03-22
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2017;26(2):559-566
KEYWORDS
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ABSTRACT
The carbon footprint (CF) evaluates the overall amount of greenhouse gas emissions and removals
associated with a product or activity across its life cycle. Today, the CF assessment has the potential to be
a key measurement for increasing sustainable agricultural production. In addition, the export-oriented fruit
sector has been challenged to quantify and reduce their CF. Worldwide there are scant peer-review studies
that examine the CF of stone fruits (Prunus genus). The scarcity is most evident in sweet cherries, which is
the third most exported stone fruit in the world in terms of value (after almonds and peaches). Chile is the
largest southern hemisphere producer and exporter of sweet cherry fruit. Within this context, the present
study is one of the first assessments of the CF of conventional sweet cherry production. This work considers
Chilean agricultural practices and identifies key influencing factors (hotspots). It takes into account the
following agricultural inputs: mineral fertilizers, pesticides, diesel consumption for agricultural operations,
machinery, and electricity for irrigation. The results indicate that the average CF of the Chilean sweet
cherry production is 0.41 kg CO2-eq/kg of harvested fruit, with a 95% confidence interval between 0.36 and
0.47 kg CO2-eq/kg. This value is higher than those for other stone fruits reported by the literature. Diesel and
fertilizers are the most important contributors to the CF of sweet cherry cultivation. Improvement scenarios
are evaluated for the hotspots in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the production of this fruit.
This study provides quantitative environmental criteria associated with global warming concerns to the
stakeholders in the fruit sector and to the agricultural policymakers.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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