• Society
• Environment

New old roots from farming to power producers… and back

BRANCHES was a H2020 “Coordination Support Action” project, that brought together 12 partners from 5 different countries. The overall objective of BRANCHES was to foster knowledge transfer and innovation in rural areas (agriculture and forestry), enhancing the viability and competitiveness of biomass, supply chains and promoting innovative technologies, rural bioeconomy solutions and sustainable agricultural and forest management. The Practice Abstract presents the story of the Pellerei farm in Italy that was established back in the early 1900s as a dairy and cattle farming and then in the 1980s moved to corn and cereals. In 2006, Pellerei developed their traditional logging business into the specialised production of woodchips to meet the growing demand for this new product. They soon realized that the potential of the local woodland far exceeded the diminutive local demand and that the profits accrued from selling raw fuel were very small compared with those they may have obtained from selling energy directly to the final user. Furthermore, as their skill and industrial capacity improved, so did the distance they had to cover to reach suitable buyers, leading to increased transportation costs that eroded profit.