01 May, 2009

How green is your Kiwifruit again?

I was puzzled by this item here about a study into carbon footprints published in 2006.

"The study estimated that flying 1kg of kiwifruit from New Zealand to Europe causes 5kg of carbon to be discharged into the atmosphere.
But Zespri, which exports 60 per cent of its overseas kiwifruit produce to Europe, challenged the veracity of the study because its fruit all goes to Britain by ship."


On the face of it that seems laughable except that the British took it seriously.

What an opportunity to come up with some correct figures - for advertising purposes of course.
So they did:

"Yesterday, it released the results of its own research - commissioned in 2007 - assessing its carbon footprint across each part of the supply chain.
The study, undertaken by Landcare Research and funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, showed shipping accounted for the most carbon emissions for all European exports at 41 per cent.

Consumer consumption and disposal made up 22 per cent, orchard operations were 17 per cent, packhouse and coolstore processes account for 11 per cent of total emissions and repacking and retailer were 9 per cent."


Nice!
Hang on - so what were those total carbon emissions per kilo again?

For whom it may concern: How about comparing apples, sorry, Kiwifruit with Kiwifruit.

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