A maxi cableway arrives in Trentino for apples from Val di Non (which cuts truck trips)

The Melinda consortium will build (partly with Pnrr funds) a cable car dedicated to the transport of apples from Val di Non.And there are also natural cold rooms, which are located in the Rio Maggiore mine

ROME – A cable car dedicated entirely to apples.Which will transport them at a speed of 5 meters per second and save money 6,000 truck trips for a total of 12,000 kilometers per year.It will be made in Trentino, in Val di Non, and the novelty was presented today in Rome by the Melinda consortium, which brings together over 4 thousand families of Trentino apple growers.The construction of the work, the first cableway entirely dedicated to apples in Italy at a cost of 10 million euros, was described in a press conference in the presence of the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Francesco Lollobrigida at the MASAF in Rome.

AN OLD GOAL THAT HAD NEVER BEEN REALIZED

Reduce the number of road vehicles for transporting goods and replace them with solutions with lower environmental impact it is an indispensable objective to get closer to the objectives of reducing CO2 emissions.An important project for every part of Italy but even more so in complex territories such as the Alpine ones.Until now, however, no one, neither in Italy nor in Europe, had managed to replace trucks with a cable car.The first to host a cableway totally dedicated to apples it will be the Val di Non in Trentino.

4 MILLION EUROS AS A NON-REFUNDABLE FUND FROM THE PNRR

The cable car project, conceived by Melinda herself, has officially won the tender dedicated to best ideas for the development of agri-food logistics, ranking 2nd out of a total of over 100 proposals that will access PNRR funds.Thanks to its innovation, it will benefit from a non-repayable contribution of just over 4 million euros, which will serve to cover 40% of the total expenditure of 10 million needed to build the plant.

“The apple cable car project is a virtuous example of how PNRR funds should be invested:in fact it guarantees an organizational advantage, responds to the needs of a complex mountain area, it demonstrates the importance of intelligent investments and forward-thinking in the agricultural sector.And, what is obviously not secondary, it ensures environmental benefits that are not at all negligible.Our applause can only go to the creators of the project and to all of Melinda.We are certain that this initiative will be a stimulus for the entire Italian system", commented Lollobrigida.

“This result is an extraordinary recognition for all our consortium members” added Ernesto Seppi, president of Melinda.“An award for the planning that we have been able to implement and which will contribute to the efforts in favor of sustainability that have been underway for some time now.Our goal and mission is to offer high quality agricultural products while reducing, step by step, their ecological footprint.Not only that:considering that, in general, fruit and vegetables are a product with low margins, these logistical rationalization interventions could have a positive impact on the economic sustainability of the supply chain".

HYPOGEEAL CELLS, THE NATURAL REFRIGERATOR FOR APPLES

From a technical point of view, the cable car will be a single cable system with automatic coupling to three pylons with 11 support pylons (of which 6 in the tunnel) with a length of 1300 meters and a height difference of 87 metres, capable of transporting 460 stackable containers (the so-called "bins") every hour, at the speed of 5 meters per second.It will leave from the Predaia processing room and arrive up to the Rio Maggiore Mine, inside the quarries created to extract dolomite rock.Here its path will continue for another 430 meters inside a tunnel to reach the hypogeal cells: a temperature-controlled “natural refrigerator” in the heart of the Dolomites which already today allows you to save 30% on electricity compared to a traditional warehouse, while also avoiding having to build new buildings on the surface.A futuristic jewel already presented to the European Parliament as a good practice of environmental and economic sustainability.

“This last stretch of tunnel – specified Seppi – is already under construction.We hope to complete it within a few months.In this way, the apples will be managed with the help of an automated system:an important leap forward towards the digitalisation of the conservation process".

ECOLOGICAL 'SAVINGS'

The "apple cableway" will thus allow 6,000 truck trips to be avoided, for a total of 12,000 kilometers per year, with a significant decrease in CO2 emissions in the valley.To manage the same volumes moved by the new cableway, during the autumn "storage" period of the cells, 10 trucks would be needed which would have to carry out a total of 80 trips a day, each carrying 36 bins.For the next 9 months, a regular cell emptying flow is expected between November and the end of July.The number of trips would stand at 15 each day.Numbers which, among other things, will increase by 30% as soon as the cell expansion works are completed, thus bringing the apple storage capacity inside the mountain to 40,000 tons".

“The new cableway was awarded by the PNRR tender also because it is relevant tourism implications:will add even more value to the visitor center redevelopment Melinda's World from which he can start a dedicated path.“In this way – continues Seppi – we want to be able to transform an industrial innovation into a tool for territorial valorisation.Thanks to it, we will soon be able to tell tourists the story behind each of our apples and the innovation efforts to make this activity increasingly sustainable.We are certain that the visit to the hypogea will become one of the strong points of the Trentino and national tourist offer and will allow guests to live a unique experience in the world."