Enomondo, a Caviro Extra and Herambiente company, manages some of the plants in Faenza that enable the Caviro Group to close its circular economy model.
These include plants that specialise in the production of farming fertilisers which, in addition to maximising the value of the by-products of the wine industry, allow Caviro to return the necessary nutrients to the land.
“The first plant for the production of soil improvers in Faenza was opened in 1995 and turns 25 this year– explains Sergio Celotti, Managing Director of Enomondo -.
The composting plant, highly innovative at the time, was able to maximise the value of a part of the marc that was very rich in nutrients and ideal for producing a compost of the highest quality”.
It was a part of the residual marc (following the extraction of alcohol, calcium tartrate, etc.) which, deposited in heaps, could be transformed into an excellent soil improver.
The plant, which at the time treated 25,000 tonnes, was defined as a demonstration project and was, therefore, given European funding.
Other materials were added to the marc, such as wood chips and pollen taken from some farms in the area that had a good nitrogen component.
“The plant was one of the first to be constructed with lanes, inside of which a heap-turning machine would move the product once a day to speed up the fermentation process, – explains Celotti -. After 25-30 days of fermentation we were able to obtain an excellent product to use in the field as a fertiliser”.
However, the early period was not easy because the market was mainly populated with cheap, poor quality fertilisers and this meant that grape marc was not being suitably exploited.
“This was when we decided to add by-products of vegetable origin, in place of marc, and prunings from public green areas which softened the muddy material obtained. This allowed us to preserve the quality of the product and marked the start of our commitment to ‘moralising’ the market -adds the Managing Director of Enomondo -. We were among the founding members of the CIC (the Italian Consortium of Composters) to obtain product quality certification and, together with the Consortium, we worked to promote and spread the uptake of quality soil improvers”.
The first recipients of the soil improver, in line with Caviro’s circularity policies, were the same farming entrepreneurs that still constitute the lion’s share of the market.
When Enomondo, was founded in 2010, Caviro transferred the composting plant and the thermoelectric power plant to the new company.
The plant has recently undergone a major modernisation process involving the use of a heap-turner which, unlike the previous one, works directly on the floor and does not, therefore, require the construction of lanes.
Today, Enomondo’s historic plant is able to collect 30,000 tonnes of by-products and waste from the agri-food chain.
The partnership with Herambiente was followed by the production of ACV (green composted soil improver) obtained from clippings and prunings from public green spaces, for which the company is authorised to collect 80,000 tonnes per year.
