Asturian start-up Agrolinera will launch an innovative whey management system for artisan cheese dairies at the end of May. It will be located in Tielve, Cabrales, in the area surrounding the Picos de Europa National Park.
This prototype, built entirely in Asturias, will digitalise whey management at these artisan cheese dairies, reducing collection costs and making use of its value. To do so, it will use a containerised, automated system connected to a cloud platform that stores the data from each whey discharge and monitors and coordinates collection, so that the whey can be sent to a treatment site efficiently and safely.
This world-first method will help sustain the rural communities that live from artisan cheesemaking and help keep people in rural areas. Local dairy farming, the engine of Asturias’s rural economy, in turn depends on these cheese dairies.
The system applies state-of-the-art technologies such as “blockchain” and “IoT” which will make it possible to trace the whey, collect it more cheaply and preserve it, encouraging circular management and boosting the sustainable growth of these businesses and their integration into the environment.
In a later phase, the collection area will be extended to the remaining cheese dairies of the Cabrales and Gamoneu PDOs, as well as other cheese dairies in the area that decide to use the service.
Agrolinera is also developing other systems for the collection and pre-treatment of livestock slurry in traditional livestock farming areas. Slurry from the most environmentally sensitive farms, such as those within the National Park’s area of influence, will be incorporated into this pilot project in a final phase.
The project, backed by various public institutions, associations and private companies in the sector, envisages the progressive valorisation of the collected livestock by-products within an integrated circular economy project based in Cabrales.
In particular, the Fundación Caja Rural de Asturias is supporting this initiative as part of its work to promote the social impact of innovation in rural areas. The initiative has also been selected for ENTAMA, EDP’s programme supporting entrepreneurs.
Making use of livestock by-products
Verónica Menéndez, director of Agrolinera, said that our aim “is to enable small farms to grow so that they are profitable, without the management of their whey or slurry compromising their sustainability or having a negative impact on tourism, the environment or local residents. We are aware that Cabrales is the perfect setting to demonstrate this, both because of its international profile and because of how important artisan cheesemaking and nature tourism are in the municipality”.
She also stressed that “the aim is to provide an efficient, definitive and sustainable solution for making use of livestock by-products, through collection and pre-treatment adapted to the territory. In regions of smallholdings, such as Asturias, farms are small and scattered and access is difficult”. She also stated that these livestock communities “need technologies and new processes to resolve the logistical complexity that hinders the valorisation of these livestock and dairy by-products. Asturias must be the mirror in which Europe’s traditional livestock farming sees its future”.
AGROLINERA is an Asturian technology-based start-up founded in Salas in 2022 that develops technologies for collecting and treating slurry from traditional dairy farming and whey from artisan cheesemaking. It is led by Verónica Menéndez Rodríguez and Juan Gutiérrez Canseco, two Asturian economists and entrepreneurs with international careers in the USA, China and Spain and extensive experience in the environment, quality control, supply chain digitalisation and renewable energy. Agrolinera has its offices at the CEEI in the Llanera Technology Park. It takes part in the European SoTecIn Factory social innovation programme and in the Rural Spain ClimAccelerator programme run by Climate-KIC and Innobound, both under Horizon Europe.
This project is supported by:
- Cabrales Town Council
- Fundación Caja Rural de Asturias
- EDP: ENTAMA, a programme supporting local entrepreneurs
- La Granja Lab. Open innovation and entrepreneurship unit focused on the food sector
- Regional Ministry of the Presidency, Demographic Challenge, Equality and Tourism (Consejería de Presidencia, Reto Demográfico, Igualdad y Turismo)
- Regional Ministry of Science, Business, Training and Employment (Consejería de Ciencia, Empresas, Formación y Empleo)
- Regional Ministry of Rural Affairs and Agricultural Policy (Consejería de Medio Rural y Política Agraria)
- Regional Ministry of Public Works, Local Cooperation and Fire Prevention (Consejería de Fomento, Cooperación Local y Prevención de Incendios)
- Regional Ministry of Ecological Transition, Industry and Economic Development (Consejería de Transición Ecológica, Industria y Desarrollo Económico)
- Picos de Europa National Park Consortium
- Cabrales PDO
- Gamonéu PDO