Environmental and Economic Sustainability of Table Grape Production in Italy

In the recent years, the environmental sustainability of agri-food systems has become a crucial issue. Agri-food firms are increasingly concerned toward the implementation of viable environmental friendly production processes. The environmental impacts of table grape sector, as other fresh and not transformed food products, involves mainly the farming phase rather than the subsequent conditioning, transportation, packaging, and distribution phases. The purpose of this study is 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 its 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 generate 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 economics 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.