Page 153 - Ecuador's Banana Sector under Climate Change

chapter 6: climate change policies and their potential impact on ecuador’s banana sector - an economic analysis
Table 51 CO2 equivalent footprint of bananas at retail (kgCO2e/t)
Ecuador to Spain
CBI: Central America to United States
Dole: Costa Rica to EU
On the farm
Domestic transport
Marine transport
Foreign ground transport
280
20
240
380
276
44
198
216
28
138
900
Sources: Ecuador-Spain: Ecuador’s bananas
Chapter 4); CBI-United States: bananas from
Dole-EU: bananas from Costa Rica delivered to supermarkets in Northern Europe (Kilian et al., 2012).
wholesale and retail locations in Spain is the largest contributor to the carbon footprint relating to bananas from Ecuador.
From the farm gate to retail sale, the banana’s carbon footprint is generated by two components: energy for transportation and energy for refrigeration and ripening. A GHG emission tax has a relatively high effect on the tax rate on energy and its imposition would create a varying abatement reaction at each link in the supply chain. Marginal abatement costs would be necessary to forecast the abatement reaction. In the absence of such information, the general outline is evident: an emission tax would raise the return of more energy-efficient engines and condensers and would contribute to the adoption of new technologies. In addition, some operational norms would shift. It is not known, however, whether the marginal change in each link of the supply chain would result in a slightly more efficient form of the chain or whether there would be sweeping changes in the supply chain itself.
Logistics systems can react structurally to minor changes. McKinnon (2008) argues that higher emission taxes, together with road and congestion charges, increase the cost of backhauling and loads that are less than full. Ballot and Fontane (2010) examined the horizontal pooling of truck and rail operations
by rival French retail chains and discovered that the carbon footprint could be reduced by 25 percent, with most of the gain resulting from reduced cross- hauling, backhauling and fuller loads. Notteboom and Rodrigue (2008, 2009) discuss how emission charges and congestion costs are transforming the geography of container ports and inland distribution networks.
The relatively brief storage life (maximum of 28 days) of the banana dictates the structure of the banana supply chain. Bananas are perishable inventory, according to logistics specialists, whereby the flow of deliveries must closely match the flow of sales to prevent excess waste or loss in sales (Nahmias, 2011; and Goyal and Giri, 2001). Since a high penalty is imposed in the event of delays, extending the storage life of the banana would reduce the time constraint and
Ripener 30
Wholesale/retail 60
Total 1 010
141
16
789
40
0
84
1 070
delivered to retailers in Spain via Rotterdam, the Netherlands (see
Central America delivered to United States supermarkets (Craig et al., 2012);
137