Carbon footprint of honey produced in Argentina

The urgent need to mitigate the emissions of gases that contribute to climate change is creating a new scenario for the international trade of goods and services. Countries that are making efforts to reduce those emissions are now demanding that imported goods contain low levels of embedded carbon for those goods to fairly compete with locally produced products. For this purpose the implementation of standards such as the “carbon footprint” becomes critical. Carbon footprint is an environmental sustainability indicator that quantifies the emissions of greenhouse gases generated during the lifecycle of a product. Argentina, as an exporter of agricultural products, has conducted initial studies to estimate the carbon footprint of several food products of high impact in its exports such as meat and wine but yet little had been done about honey production even though the country is one of the world's three largest exporters. This study is the first assessment of the carbon footprint of honey produced in Argentina where almost 95% of the production goes to the export markets. This study also adds scientific value by comparing economic value-based allocation and production-based allocation.