Today Alto Adige/Südtirol remains the most widespread quality mark in Italy, with over 200 producers and 4,600 farmers adhering to it, and is considered a benchmark for those involved in territorial marketing.
Starting with classic products (such as yoghurt and bread), the Alto Adige brand has since expanded to 11 product categories, including innovative ones such as watercress obtained in vertical indoor farming. "We started out in 2009 with the aim of offering a regional, organic and sustainable product to chefs who were forced to source it from Holland, by starting an additional farming business to the family business," explains Ulrich Kager, founder together with Patrick Sanin of Profarms, specialising in microgreens
A similar path is what prompted Josef Obkircher and Andreas Kalser to transform the old barn of a farm into a 'greenhouse' for 'exotic' mushrooms, such as shiitake, and Mediterranean ones, such as cardoncello, which have acclimatised well at an altitude of 1,500 metres.
In Italy's greenest province, innovation also focuses on projects that combine the development of the region with the more sustainable use of resources. Proof of this is the first South Tyrolean insect farm, opened a few weeks ago at Solos Aquaponix in Termeno. Here, the larvae of an insect, the black soldier, are fed with by-products of the agri-food chain collected locally, avoiding waste, and then converted into protein flours for quality feed.
Read more at Il Sole 24
