Environmental and Economic Sustainability of Table Grape Production in Italy

Luigi Roselli, Arturo Casieri, Bernardo Corrado de Gennaro, Ruggiero Sardaro and Giovanni Russo
Additional contact information
Arturo Casieri: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy
Bernardo Corrado de Gennaro: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy
Ruggiero Sardaro: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy
Giovanni Russo: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-24

Abstract: In recent years, the environmental sustainability of agri-food systems has become a crucial issue. Agri-food firms are increasingly concerned with the implementation of viable environmentally friendly production processes. The environmental impacts of the table grape sector, as well as other fresh and not transformed food products, involve mainly the farming phase rather than the subsequent conditioning, transportation, packaging, and distribution phases. The purpose of this study was to assess the environmental impacts and the economic viability of three table grapes production models (i.e., early harvesting, normal harvesting, and delayed harvesting), based on the Italian tendone system, during the entire life cycle. The environmental impact analysis was performed using the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, while the economic analysis was performed using the life cycle costing (LCC) approach. The results show that the early and the delayed production models generated the highest environmental burdens, but also the highest economic returns, compared to the normal harvesting production model. The main determinants of the environmental impacts and economic returns are discussed and some practical recommendations are given to improve the sustainability of all the surveyed production models, so to converge public and private interests.

Keywords: winegrowing; table grape; tendone system; life cycle assessment; life cycle costing; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3670/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3670/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3670-:d:353093

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().