Melinda is a producer organization composed of 4,000 families of fruit growers who live and cultivate apple trees in the Non and Sole Valleys. Melinda has always focused its efforts on the search for sustainable production methods aimed at protecting the environment and the land. The flagship of the Consortium’s sustainability policies is the Melinda Hypogeous Cells Project, the world’s first and only center for underground refrigeration of fresh fruit, which can be visited on an exceptional basis during Green Week. The Melinda Consortium will take the public on a tour of the facility located inside the Rio Maggiore mine, a rock mass about 80 HA in size consisting entirely of Dolomia, the double calcium-magnesium carbonate rock of which the Dolomites are made. The underground cells are located about 575 meters above sea level, 900m from the mine entrance and 275m below the roots of the apple trees that are grown on the surface lands. Thanks to the reduction in energy consumption, the significant water savings resulting from the possibility of using geothermal energy to cool the compressors, the elimination of insulating panels whose disposal generates pollution, and the preservation of the landscape and agricultural land resulting from the non-realization of a new large shed on the surface, this work contributes decisively to environmental protection.
Melinda Consortium
