Summary

In recent years, costumers show an increasing interest towards local products, made from local ingredients of high quality standards and whose production is traceable and transparent. Furthermore, many customers are willing to pay more for such products. Some 50 arable farms gathered around this idea, along with the flour-mill Giambastiani and several local bakeries to promote the introduction of traditional varieties of wheat.

Supported by the Universities of Pisa and Firenze and different RDP measures, they carried out a range of activities including experimental trials of local wheat varieties, developed a model to foresee the quality parameters of the bread-wheat and flour, identified the microbial population of the natural yeast, etc.    

Results

In 2014, 50 farms produced 2.5 thousand tonnes of bread-wheat which was processed by the Giambastiani mill, and distributed to 13 bakeries that produced bread certified as Tuscan bread PDO.

Developed and adopted a new traceability model.

A common protocol to produce bread-wheat was developed and was adopted by all participating holdings.

The best local varieties of bread-wheat were selected, both in terms of environmental sustainability and economic performance.

A detailed supply chain agreement was defined.