Challenges and opportunities of winter vine pruning for global grape and wine industries

Abstract

Green and sustainable development have become one of the core requirements of the wine industry. Due to the needs of cultivation and management, a large number of winter vine pruning (WVP) residues are discarded in the vineyard or directly burned in the open air, and this extensive treatment poses a huge threat to the environment. In this paper, the physicochemical properties, high-value utilization strategies and possible risks in the process of utilization were systematically reviewed. Based on the investigation of WVP biomass in the grape and wine industries around the world, at least 6.73–18.59 Mt (million tons) of WVP biomass is generated worldwide each year, if all WVP is removed by field combustion, many pollutants would be generated globally. In fact, WVP is a huge agricultural resource library, about 90% of WVP consists of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, in addition to them, crude protein, crude fat, minerals and other bioactive compounds. Therefore, if the vineyard waste can be effectively transformed and utilized, and the high-value utilization of WVP can be carried out to replace the traditional extensive treatment, it will not only have good economic benefits, but also contribute to the green and sustainable development of the wine industry. This is undoubtedly an effective means to solve the WVP problem. For example, WVP residues could be reused as raw materials for biofuel, activated carbon, edible fungi breeding and industrial materials. In addition, bioactive compounds can be also extracted from WVP residues. This review pointed out the possible challenges and threats of the high-value utilization of WVP as well, such as how to prune efficiently? How to collect efficiently? How is non-toxic application? How can additional threats to the environment be reduced? The aim of the review is to reduce the threat of grape and wine industry to the environment, and increase the economic benefits of orchard, so as to open new ideas for green and sustainable development of grape and wine industry.