For all of you who participated at the Suppliers’ Day – Agribusiness 2019, we would like to thank and say it was an honor to host you.
You have made a significant contribution to this event and we truly hope that the meetings were beneficial to you as well.
Suppliers’ Day – Agribusiness 2019, organized by the Vojvodina Development Agency (RAV), brought together representatives of more than 120 companies, institutions, farmsteads, and cooperatives.
Many legal entities applied for the event: 76 companies, 11 agricultural holdings, 16 entrepreneurs, 2 agricultural cooperatives, 7 large trade chains, BioSens Institute, Institute of Food Technology in Novi Sad, agricultural expert services, and Development Fund of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina…
A wide range of sector-specific producers was also registered: fruit and vegetables, cereal cultivation, the milling, dairy and meat industries, beekeepers, manufacturers of agricultural machinery, animal fodder, beverages, sugar, edible oils and fats, mushrooms, packaging, etc.
Here is what officials and some of the participants said about this event.
Vice-President of the Government of AP Vojvodina, Djordje Milicević
“The main aim of this manifestation is to gather small and medium agribusiness enterprises and connect them to large exporters and retail chains, thus enabling them to become part of their supply chain. Agricultural producers, therefore, have continuous product placement on one hand, and on the other hand, large retail chains and exporters have a continuous supply of products and raw materials. “
“Through this networking, two major effects are achieved: an increase in exports and an overall increase in production in the field of agriculture. The Vojvodina Development Agency has found a good model to create a link between small producers and large exporters and retail chains.”
Director of the Vojvodina Development Agency, Nikola Zezelj
“Number of participants at these events is continuously growing, therefore for the Suppliers’ Day – Agribusiness 2019 we have 130 companies registered. In the next period, we will contact all of the participants in order to see how successful their meetings during the Suppliers’ Day were, and whether they will result in concrete business arrangements and partnerships. ”
Van Drunen Farms Europe, Commercial Director, Milorad Markovic
“We have registered for this event as we are seeking new local suppliers of fresh and frozen vegetables, as well as new buyers of our products. We’ve had also several interesting meetings with retail chains, since by the end of next month we are planning, for the first time in our company’s history to place our own brand “Handful”. Also, several meetings with some small companies have been interesting, as we have learned that they are using our products in addition to their products, such as honey, tea, chocolate, etc.”
Delhaize Serbia, Category Manager, Tamara Polovina
“We came to this event because Delhaize is supporting local suppliers and it is our goal to place good domestic products in our stores. The challenging thing for domestic suppliers is a set of criteria we have a large retail chain. Like all large systems with many products and different product categories, we have to maintain the quality of cooperation with suppliers as well as product quality for our customers. Besides innovative products, we are committed to small producers and healthy food, a category that is growing and expanding each year. That is exactly why today we’ve mostly had meetings with producers of healthy food and fruit and vegetables.”
Delhaize Serbia, Category Manager Assistant, Milica Davidovic
“We are more satisfied with the outcome of the event that we have expected. Most of the suppliers were from the categories that we are interested in: fruits & vegetables, and healthy food – therefore exactly what was in our focus and we feel that there is potential for cooperation. It is more suitable for us, as well as for potential suppliers to meet in this way. It is easier and quicker for all of us to meet in this way than to take the usual way of scheduling a separate meeting. This is proof that 10 minutes per meeting is just enough to gather the most relevant information. ”
Owners of the Truff Truff, more and more famous products from Vojvodina truffles have a lot to say, and it’s hard to separate what each of them has said exactly, therefore we convey their statement together, Sanja Melkus & Violeta Ivkovic
“In the adventure of entrepreneurship (women entrepreneurs) we have embarked together and we are proud to say that we’ve been successful. We’ve been registered since the end of 2017, and in a year and a half, we have managed to fulfill our plan of product placement in Serbia. Our products are present in 15 shops, whether there are health food shops or retail chains, we are happy with sales. The reason why we are at this event and where we seek ideas and help is packaging for our products. Glass packaging that we use has to be purchased bulk, which is not suitable for us, so we came to meet packaging producers, to see what their offer is. Glass packaging is this whole separate issue of which we, small producers, have to be very insightful.”
Oyster and shiitake mushrooms producer from Sremski Karlovci, whom Novi Sad residents must know from the Liman market, Dejan Stefanovic
“Now most of my sales are on the markets, but my mushrooms are also present on the shelves of Lidl. I came here to explore the market, to see what is demand and what are our options for further, but also to hold meetings with some other chains, and I can tell you that I am pleased that with the outcome.”
Ljubica Erkic, owner of Pastai, company that creates traditional and modern pasta in more than 50 different flavors and shapes:
“We managed to complete the market of Serbia in two years, to enter large chains and to work with top-level restaurants and hotels, but it still has a lot of work. We came to find a good raw material because we want to expand our program and start with export more intense. We have inquiries from abroad and will probably export for the Russian market and for Croatia. Today I have had successful meetings here, just as at last year’s RAV Supplier day, after which our products entered the Univerexport market chain. ”
Tatjana Avramov, Real Red Raspberry Ltd, a family-owned company founded and run by father and daughter
“We produce raspberries and premium raspberry products. We have 10 ha of raspberry, we have our own refrigerator and in the last year and a half, we also process raspberries in healthy, premium products. We export our products in the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Iraq and at this moment we are negotiating with some other countries in the Middle East. When it comes to Serbia, our products are exclusively only in the Delhaise market chain, but we came to this event to talk with representatives of other chains, as well as with companies that produce frozen raspberries in the territory of Vojvodina. I also spoke with the Development Fund of Vojvodina to see what kind of subsidies is available to us. I really appreciate this type of business meeting: we have ten minutes to sell our product, what we do, our energy.”
Vladimir Bozic, owner of Green House Food, also known as “Patewski spreads”:
„We are currently producing about 60,000 pieces per month, but in the foreseeable future we are planning to produce double, maybe even triple, and we also plan to export. We are currently exporting to Bosnia and Herzegovina, but there are indications that we will do Slovenia and Russia, too. We came here for meetings with big market chains in which our products are not available yet.”
Milos Prpa, Prpa Jomi company:
“We make vegetable spreads and work for only one year. We are currently producing two to three thousand pounds per month, exporting to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, but we are negotiating with several other countries. We came here to meet with representatives of retail chains, but also to find suppliers of raw materials because we have a problem finding organic producers. We need organic eggplant, tomato, and broccoli, and spinach, sunflower. “
Ivana Drndarski, farmstead Drndarski:
“We are dealing with the production of berries, we have 8, 6 ha of strawberries, 1,15 ha of blackberry, 6,30 ha of peppers, we also have greenhouse lettuce and we’ll have a melon…Here we come to present ourselves primarily with berries, which we would pack this year in special packages. Most of the products are exported to Russia, while in Serbia we sell the most to purchasers. Our goal is to get into some market chains in Serbia.“
Nemanja Mirilov and Biljana Markov, Farmstead Mirilov:
Nemanja Mirilov
“We are engaged in the production and processing of leblebi, and our main product is a high-protein gluten-free flour, milled in a traditional way. We also cooperate with other producers who produce flour in a traditional way, without the use of chemicals. For now, we are selling mainly in health food stores as well on the Internet. Here we registered as a fresh leblebi supplier, but soon we will also launch a cooked pasteurized leblebi on the market“.
Biljana Markov:
“There is a growing demand for our products so we came here to find out what are the conditions of large retail chains. This is a very good way for business talks because one day you can get more contacts. After the Suppliers’ Day last year, company Pastai began to take our flour, and we have had several successful talks this year too.”
The next Suppliers’ Day of the Vojvodina Development Agency will be held in November this year and will be dedicated to the sector of the automotive industry.
The next suppliers’ day for those in the agribusiness sector will gather us again in the spring of 2020.