LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF SMALL-SCALE HONEY PRODUCTION IN MENDOZA, ARGENTINA

PIASTRELLINI, R., ; CURADELLI, S.; ARENA, A. P.; BARÓN, G.; CIVIT, B.M.

Buenos Aires

Conferencia; 9th Int. Conference on Life Cycle Assessment in Latin America - CILCA 2021; 2021

Red Argentina de Ciclo de Vida/Red Iberoamericana de Ciclo de Vida

Beekeeping activity is recognized not only for the high biological value products and services it provides to crop pollination, but also for its contribution to regional development with rural employment generation and low barriers to entry, particularly in the primary stage.The evolution of world natural honey production had a positive trend: in the last 27 years an average annual increase of 1.7% was observed. The world minimum production was recorded in 1996 (1,096,758 t) while the maximum was in 2015 (1,825,752 t).Argentina is the country with the largest number of hives in the Southern Hemisphere. Approximately 95% of Argentinian honey production is exported, where 97% correspond to natural honey. Export destinations are poorly diversified; they are concentrated in the USA (48%) and Germany (26%). Even though, domestic demand is low, the current trend toward a better quality of life, consumption of natural and healthy products with features that benefit the health, show a possible increase in local demand.Beekeeping production in Argentina is present in most provinces of the country but maintains a higher incidence in the Central Region (Buenos Aires province concentrates around 50% of national production). The rest is distributed to beekeepers in small and medium scale companies with limited financial resources. Only in recent years export consortia have been created in order to facilitate access of small beekeepers to foreign trade. Unlike large exporters who export "honey mixture" bulk, the consortia are seeking to boost their sales by increasing the added value of their production through product differentiation and the adaptation to the requirements of quality and sustainability imposed by major buyers: the Union European and the United States. Currently operate nine consortia in Argentina, one of them in Cuyo region whose honey is recognized worldwide for its high quality organoleptic and physico-chemical properties obtained on the basis of the vast unspoiled native vegetation.This study was carried out in order to assess the environmental impact of the honey production in Mendoza, one of the main honey producing provinces in the Cuyo region. A Life Cycle Assessment was performed for small-scale production. The dataset represents the production of 330 kilograms of processed and packed honey. The analyzed system includes hive construction, hive management, honey harvesting and extraction, and finally packaging. Current technology was modeled, and the data processed covered year(s) 2014. An economic allocation was made taking into account honey, beeswax and nucs (commercial packages of live bees used to start a new hive).Data collection was done through surveys and visits to extraction facilities. Given the disparity of the results obtained, the most representative producer of local artisan production was selected for the analysis. Considering the great influence of beekeeping in the performance increment of horticulture-fruit production in Cuyo region, the study includes an additional analysis that incorporates pollination services. This complementary analysis was performed considering 3 scenarios for allocation: i) No pollination services; ii) Pollination services to increase production in local fruit trees (such as almond, cherries, plums, etc.); iii) Pollination services for seed production of local vegetables (such as onion).The results have shown that the major environmental impacts of honey production are caused by the production of sugar used in the manufacturing of food supplements for the bees and the transfer of the hives between production sites (which is between two and three times a year at the end of the flowering stage of different vegetation species).The normalized results show that the most affected impact categories are Human toxicity, Ecotoxicity and Eutrophication. Regarding the Global warming (100a) category, emissions from the manufacturing of metallic drums and plastic containers as well as transport of inputs and hives to the site of production are largely compensated by the carbon absorption during the stage of growing crops for sugar production (for bee feed).Therefore, the impact is reduced from 34.65 kg CO2e to 4.82 kg CO2e / FU.When pollination services are added to the study, the results become greatly affected. In all categories except Global warming, the pollination service diminishes the impact of the honey production stage. The maximum reductions (about 25%) are observed in Ecotoxicity soil chronic, Human toxicity soil, Human toxicity air and Aquatic eutrophication (P) categories.These results are useful for producers interested in improving their supply chain from the environmental point of view.