Memorandum of Understanding for a hop garden for the production of ‘made in Prato’ craft beer

Title Memorandum of Understanding for a hop garden for the production of ‘made in Prato’ craft beer

Location Prato

Duration 3 years

Partners Comune di Prato, Provincia di Prato, PIN – Polo Universitario Città di Prato, Istituto Francesco Datini, Rete di imprese Luppolo made in Italy, Birrificio i Due Mastri, Azienda agricola Tra Bosco e Stelle

 

Context

With the Prato Circular City strategy, the Municipality of Prato intends to facilitate the city’s transformation towards a circular economy. In particular, it aims to

  • create and enhance networks between agricultural producers, processing and marketing companies, catering and tourist accommodation with the aim of creating short and typical supply chains in an overall design of enhancing Prato’s agrifood offer
  • implement virtuous processes for the minimisation of agrifood waste and responsible consumption, in line with the circular economy
  • realise future integrated processes for the enhancement of the territory’s agri-food and tourist and agri-tourism offer, also through participatory processes.

Exploiting this potential, the Memorandum of Understanding for a hop garden for the production of craft beer ‘made in Prato’ unites the various actors in the creation of an experimental hop garden aimed at the creation of a beer based on the short supply chain.

The cultivation of the hops will take place in the field at the disposal of the Higher Secondary Institute ‘Francesco Datini’, the transformation will be carried out by the ‘I Due Mastri’ Brewery, already known for the use of hops cultivated in the Municipality of Prato. The transformation process will be supervised by the Circular Innovation and Sustainable Commodities Unit for its expertise on sustainable supply chains, in product and quality characterisation of agrifood production and the circular economy.

Thanks to the involvement then of the Tra Bosco e Stelle farm, it is intended to contribute to the strengthening of local quality agri-food chains. While the Rete di Imprese Luppolo Made in Italy is a network contract that organises the Italian hop supply chain by providing technical and agronomic expertise for the development of cultivation in the different territories.

 

General Objective

The Memorandum of Understanding aims, therefore, to create and implement an experimental hop farm in the Prato area with educational, training, skills and knowledge enhancement and research purposes.

The Circular Innovation and Sustainable Commodities Unit has been involved to provide technical and scientific support in relation to the product quality of hops and beer production.

 

Our contribution

Scientific technical support focuses on the strengthening and sustainability of agrifood chains at the local level, on the product characterisation and multifunctionality of agricultural production, on the introduction of good agroecological practices and circular economy. It also contributes to the production of scientific publications on the experimentation, while guaranteeing to the Municipality of Prato the coordination of the protocol management technical table.

Read more on the Circular Innovation & Sustainable Commodities Unit