Making Virtue Out of Necessity: Managing the Citrus Waste Supply Chain for Bioeconomy Applications

Abstract

The efficient use of agricultural wastes and by-products, which essentially transforms waste materials into value-added products, is considered as pivotal for an effective bioeconomy strategy for the rural development. Within this scope, citrus waste management represents a major issue for citrus processors. However, it also represents a potentially unexploited resource for rural sustainable development. This study focuses on analyzing the current management of citrus waste in South Italy, and on identifying the determinants and barriers that may affect an entrepreneur’s choice in the destination of citrus waste. This study investigates the preferences of citrus processors regarding the contract characteristics necessary to take part in a co-investment scheme. Both analyses are preliminary steps in designing an innovative and sustainable citrus by-product supply chain. Results show that the distance between the citrus processors and the citrus by-products plant is one of the main criteria for choosing alternative valorization pathways. Moreover, guaranteed capital, a short duration of the contract, and reduced risk are contract scheme characteristics that improve entrepreneurs’ willingness to co-invest in the development of a citrus waste multifunctional plant. The overall applied approach can be extended to other contexts for designing new and innovative by-product supply chains, thereby enhancing the implementation of bioeconomy strategies.

Research Progress of Energy Utilization of Agricultural Waste in China: Bibliometric Analysis by Citespace

“…The change of keywords, from "livestock and poultry waste" during 1999-2002 to "livestock and slaughterhouse waste" after 2015, have revealed energy utilization of slaughterhouse waste has started to be considered as a focus of energy utilization of agricultural waste by academic circles in recent years. The above research conclusions are consistent with the research conclusions of many countries in this field during the same period [88,89].…”

Cause Related Marketing among Millennial Consumers: The Role of Trust and Loyalty in the Food Industry

“…The recent decades have seen the arising of public concerns due to the impacts of business operations on the environment and society [1,2]. As for the agri-food sector, food companies are often referred as accountable for: (i) impacting negatively the environment and depleting natural resources and biodiversity [3][4][5][6]; (ii) affecting society and communities in which they operate as well as people' health and life [7,8]; (iii) applying unfair business practices, exerting a considerable bargaining power on the actors involved in the supply chain [8][9][10].…”

Assessment of Tomato Peels Suitable for Producing Biomethane within the Context of Circular Economy: A GIS-Based Model Analysis

“…In this context a new way of doing business has been introduced by the European Commission: the bio-economy, i.e., an economy using biological resources from the land and sea as inputs to food and feed, industrial and energy production. Such an economical system is then based on the so-called biorefinery, i.e., an industrial model based on the use of renewable raw materials for the generation of sustainably created products [46,47]. In this context, food wastes represent a cheap, renewable, and abundant feedstock for sustainable production of a wide range of products, that are taking on an ever-increasing role in the Italian market [48].…”