Apple farmers in northern Italy have a new way of transporting their harvest down the hills and into storage in caves below - a cable car system dedicated to transporting the fruit.

The cable car line in the Val di Non in the Dolomites covers a distance of 1.3 km (0.8 miles) and a 90-meter drop.

Officials from the local Melinda apple-producing consortium estimate it will eliminate thousands of lorry trips.

According to Melinda consortium manager Fabrizio Conforti: ''We chose to build this innovative system because it will allow us to avoid using more than 5,000 lorries (lorry journeys) on the roads, which until now have been used to transport our apples to the underground storage facilities.

"The cable car line will completely eliminate this vehicle traffic because all the produce will be transported by cable car line.''

He added: ''The cable car arrives in the heart of the Dolomites, where our underground cold stores are located.

"We have 46 cold storage cells with a total capacity of 40,000 tonnes.

"It starts near one of our largest processing centres and, once it has overcome the difference in height and length mentioned earlier, it enters the mountain. And the apples will be placed inside the cold storage cells.''

The cable car was developed by specialist Italian company Leitner and local workers, with 40 percent of the funding coming from the European Union's post-COVID recovery funds.

Melinda President Ernesto Seppi called the cableway "a source of pride" and part of a broader sustainability strategy that includes the use of renewable energy, drip irrigation to help conserve water, and natural cold storage.

The cars carry 460 containers per hour and the consortium says its eco-friendly scheme is already bearing fruit.