The €4.8 million investment in the 35-hectare farm, which belongs to the group, is expected to create 25 direct jobs, including the craft beer and citrus production facility, the interpretive centre, and the restaurant space associated with the project, Arnaldo Baptista, owner of the Coimbra-based business group, told Lusa.

Today, the Municipal Assembly will vote on recognizing the project as a municipal public interest, after the investment was unanimously approved at a meeting of the Coimbra City Council earlier this month.

The company, which revived the historic Coimbra beer brands Topázio and Onyx, aims to significantly increase its production capacity with this investment, from the current 800,000 litres to approximately five million litres per year, added Pedro Baptista, Praxis's executive director and the founder's son, noting that the investment is expected to be completed within a year.

This project also seeks to strengthen its focus on citrosidra, a beverage the group launched in 2022.

In fact, this farm is home to some of the raw materials, including orange groves and apple orchards, which feed the production, created from must made from equal amounts of apples and oranges. The remainder comes from other producers in the region.

This new fermented beverage is the result of a master's thesis that Arnaldo Baptista decided to pursue, in a partnership between the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra and the School of Agriculture, which he presented in 2016.

"I'm one of those who say Coimbra is the city of forgotten treasures. And I wanted to deepen the image I had of the Coimbra of orange groves," he said, emphasizing the historical presence of oranges in the region.

After investing in beer, he realized there was room to create a cider that blends orange and apple, far removed from the "hyper-sugary" commercial ciders.

"It's for people who enjoy dry products," which have "the velvety apple, the tartness, but also the citrus touch, from the orange," explained the group's founder.

Located on the border between Coimbra and Montemor-o-Velho, in addition to orchards, the farm has cows, sheep, and breeding pigs and is a symbol of the company's commitment to the circular economy.

According to the director of Praxis, there is "great use of waste," particularly solid waste from the cereals used in beer production, which "are rich in protein and fiber" and serve as feed for the cows.

"The surplus food from the [Praxis] restaurant and coffee grounds are composted and used as fertilizer," he added.

On the farm, a production unit with a ceiling height of approximately ten meters is planned, but it will be "practically entirely buried in the ground" and covered with vegetation to ensure that no foreign bodies are created on the site, said Arnaldo Baptista.

The interpretive centre, which will honour "all the dissertation work," will explain the cider fermentation and creation process, Pedro Baptista emphasized, noting that, in the future, a hotel project may be developed for the estate.

For Arnaldo Baptista, the recognition of the municipal public interest will help unblock the process with the Ministry of Agriculture, lamenting that all unique projects encounter resistance from state agencies.

This had already happened with Praxis, he noted, recalling that, at the time, the project, which combined catering and production in the same space, had begun in 1998 but only saw the light of day in 2007.

"When a project with any audacity arrives, there is negative discrimination," he lamented.