Evaluating the environmental performance of orange production in Veracruz, Mexico: A life cycle assessment approach

Abstract

Mexico is the fifth largest producer of orange worldwide, and it is expected to increase its production in the following years. Environmental impacts of orange cultivation have been previously described in major orange-producing countries, except for Mexico. This paper aims to assess the environmental performance of orange production in Veracruz, Mexico's largest orange producer state, through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. A cradle-to-farm gate assessment was performed based on a functional unit of 1 ton of fresh orange. The system boundaries considered the environmental impacts of cultivation and harvesting of oranges, as well as impacts derived from the production of required inputs. Primary data was gathered from three municipalities within the Martinez and Tuxpan regions, and complemented using agricultural models to develop the life cycle inventory. Two farm categories were considered: the first based on the production system (conventional and organic), and the latter based on farm size (high and medium production); the obtained data was subsequently arranged into weighted averages. The environmental impacts were assessed using the CML-IA baseline impact methodology, plus the CED method and a water consumption quantification based on the life cycle inventories. Furthermore, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to identify trends between systems and detect impact hotspots. Results indicate that conventional orange production has a higher impact than organic production in most of the assessed impacts, especially on GWP, AP, EP, and HTP, mainly caused by production and use of fertilizers. The environmental impacts related to upstream processes are the major contributors to the environmental impacts of organic orange production. This paper's contribution lies in broadening the LCA literature for fruit products in developing countries, characterizing orange producers based on crop system and farm size, and proposing the PCA tool for the interpretation of LCA results.