Date Fruit Production and Consumption: A Perspective on Global Trends and Drivers from a Multidimensional Footprint Assessment

Fabio Sporchia, Nicoletta Patrizi () and Federico Maria Pulselli
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Fabio Sporchia: Department of Science, Technology and Society, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Nicoletta Patrizi: Ecodynamics Group, Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
Federico Maria Pulselli: Ecodynamics Group, Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-17

Abstract: Date production and consumption is mostly diffused in Middle East and Northern African countries. Date production is linked to the land and water footprint in countries where agricultural land and freshwater are scarce. We estimate the global land, green water, blue water, and water scarcity footprint at the country scale from a production perspective. We show that production trends are increasingly driven by foreign demand. By tracking the international trade dynamics of dates, we map the shift of environmental footprint from the producing to the consuming countries. We find that dates production and consumption are not yet decoupled from the associated environmental burden. Global dates consumption accounted for 1.4 million hectares of agricultural land, 5.8 Gm 3 of green water, 7.5 Gm 3 of blue water, and the related impact on water scarcity reached 358 Gm 3 world equivalent in 2019. The primacy of the economic driver is revealed, indicating that in the case of dates, the environmental sustainability aspects are currently overlooked for the sake of the economic benefit. The time-series analysis provides informative results to support policymakers in the design of mitigation strategies that can help the achievement of the SDGs.

Keywords: date fruit; land footprint; water footprint; water scarcity footprint; international trade; producer and consumer perspective; SDG 6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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