Although the weather conditions caused damage to agricultural producers who grow berries, the cold storages where the fruits are stored and bought expect record-breaking purchase of berries at the end of the season.
Rain, snow, hail and frost were the greatest enemies of farmers who did not manage to protect the raspberry orchards on time. However, Elvir Buljić from the village Kasapovići near Zenica expects one ton of fruits from his 100mx10m large orchard. He signed the purchase contract already, although he does not know what the purchase price will be at the end of the season.
The company Natural Food opened new cold storages in Željezno Polje and the company deals with the purchase of all sorts of raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and other berries. They bought around 1.000 tons of fruit last year and they expect even greater amount of them. However, it all depends on weather conditions because, according to the head of the branch office Natural Food Željezno Polje Suvad Hadžić, a rough year is behind the farmers.
“Although we had a rough year with frost, hail and rain, that did not significantly influence the quality of products. Despite all problems, today we have over 1.300 subcontractors from the Zenica-Doboj Canton. Given that a lot of orchards are in jeopardy because of increased humidity, we are not sure about the amounts that will be bought, but we will certainly have at elast he same amount as last year,” Hadžić said.
Around 300 tons of fruit came to the branch office of Natural Food so far and the season is just beginning. The harvest will last until frost and expectations of producers and purchase stations are great. However, the purchase price is still unknown.
“When it comes to price, we hope that the subcontractors will be satisfied and the price will at the end of the harvest when all amounts are settled, because we have storages in Srebrenica, Bugojno, Vitez and Željezno Polje. Only in the Central Bosnia Canton and the Zenica-Doboj Canton we have around 3.000 subcontractors,” Hadžić added.
Federation of producers of berries in Bosnia and Herzegovina agreed the direct export of 650 tons of raspberries to Switzerland for the beginning of cooperation, and the export should increase year after year.
(Source: kupujmodomace.ba/photo: vizijadanas.com)
