Consequential Life Cycle Assessment of pisco production in the Ica Valley, Peru

Pisco is a brandy produced in regions of central and southern coastal Peru. Based on the Denomination of Origin requirements, no other regions are able to distill pisco or cultivate grapes for its production. In 2015 a total... [ view full abstract ]

Pisco is a brandy produced in regions of central and southern coastal Peru. Based on the Denomination of Origin requirements, no other regions are able to distill pisco or cultivate grapes for its production. In 2015 a total of 95 million hectoliters were produced, a six-fold increase as compared to year 2000. Its consumption displays an increasing linear trend, with a strong demand at a national level and augmenting exports. In this context, it is important to bear in mind that an increase in production will alter the amount of land destined to grape production in areas that present hyper-arid conditions. Therefore, in order to understand the environmental impacts related to the dynamics of the increasing national beverage demand, a consequential Life Cycle Assessment (CLCA) approach is proposed in this study. Special attention is given to the indirect land use changes (iLUCs) derived from the production growth.

In previous attributional LCA studies, the most significant environmental burdens linked to pisco production corresponded to the viticulture stage. However, these excluded the effects of marginal production. Ica, the selected region for this analysis, is one of the most profitable agricultural areas in Peru, generating roughly 6% of the national economic revenue in the agro-industrial sector. It is also the main producer of pisco and, inherently, of pisco-grapes. Based on this geographical context, a temporal horizon of 10 years was fixed to measure the environmental consequences linked to the production of an additional 750 mL bottle of pisco.

From a methodological perspective, global warming potential and water depletion were the selected impact categories. Additionally, an analysis of the current market was conducted following a series of CLCA recommendations available in the literature. In fact, potential changes in the foreground and background systems were analyzed. Moreover, technical, economical and physical constraints were identified in both systems. Eight different scenarios resulting from the combination of background and foreground impacts were proposed. For the foreground system, system expansion was performed to account for vinasse, the main co-product obtained as a final residue of pisco distillation, currently used as a sealing coat in unpaved roads, but with fertilizing properties. For the background system, variation in viticulture demand may disturb the remaining supply and demand equilibria. Two potential phenomena were found: displacement of existing crops and expansion of the agricultural frontier. These rational predictions were determined analyzing yield, market price, and additional indicators of all agricultural products in Ica for the past 10 years. Products that are more likely to be replaced by producers were identified: cotton, alfalfa, and onions.

Preliminary results indicate that the expansion of the agricultural frontier may be linked to positive effects in terms of GHG emissions due to carbon sequestration in this hyper-arid context. However, all proposed scenarios forecast negative effects in terms of water depletion, increasing the burden on groundwater resources. These and other trade-offs are discussed and recommendations proposed in order to provide enough data to interested stakeholder and the academic community.