Comparison of environmental impacts of importing and storing apples in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The aim of the work is to compare the potential environmental impacts of importing and storing apples in the Czech Republic using the life cycle assessment method and to answer the question of whether it is worthwhile to support local production and longer period of storage or, on the contrary, to support imports of production from distant areas resulting in higher adverse effects
of transport, but short time of storage. Four scenarios were considered in the study 1) local apple production in the Czech Republic; 2) production in European countries; 3) production in Chile and 4) production in New Zealand. Different removal times were considered at the same time as the different production sites. The results of the study evaluate the import of apples from Chile and New Zealand as less environmentally friendly than the longer time storage of the local production. Importing apples from overseas is paying off from an environmental perspective only when compared to storage for 7 months or more (September - April) and only for the following categories of environmental impacts: freshwater consumption, freshwater and maritime eutrophication, ionizing radiation and human toxicity ( non-cancerogenic). From the point of view view of most of the impact categories, including the carbon footprint, it is considerably more environmentally friendly to promote local production than to import apples from a greater distance.