Life Cycle Assessment of Apple Exported from Japan to Taiwan and Potential Environmental Impact Abatement

A life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed for fresh apples exported from Japan to Taiwan to identify hotspots along the supply chain. We further explore how to minimize the environmental impact of the post-harvest chain in order to mitigate the carbon footprint of the apple chain. Within the climate change impact category, the hotspots were cultivation and truck transport with cooling in Japan. Based on the hotspots, introducing a modal shift in Japanese domestic transportation and changing to a port closer to the farm for ship distribution would decrease the climate change impact by 13%-22% relative to the base case. This study provided essential insights for the development of a more environmentally friendly apple distribution process from Japan to Taiwan.