Although the majority of BiH citizens enjoys in several cups of coffee per day, not many of them know the path of coffee grains that starts in faraway countries and ends in retail chains. Given that there are no conditions for coffee growing in BiH, large amounts of raw and roasted coffee are imported from various countries to BiH.
The largest amounts of raw coffee are not imported from the world’s largest producer, Brazil, although the purchase from direct producers would be the most cost-effective move. Instead, BiH imports the largest amounts of raw coffee from wholesalers from Slovenia (74 percent of the total amount), Austria (11 percent) and Croatia (10 percent), according to the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH (UIO BiH).
According to the spokesman of UIO BiH Ratko Kovačević, the largest amounts of roasted coffee imported in 2015 came from Italy (82 percent), Croatia (11 percent) and Slovenia (three percent).
“In 2015, BiH imported 20.886.667 kilograms of raw coffee costing 81.190.024 BAM. In the same period, we imported 1.537.190 kilograms of roasted coffee for 14.884.256 BAM,” Kovačević stated.
Corporate communications director of the AS Group Adis Hasaković, the group that also owns Vispak Visoko, stated that a sort of Brazilian coffee is used for the making of Zlatna džezva, the most famous coffee of this brand. He also explained the further processing procedure.
“The coffee first passes the entrance quality control, after which it goes to the cleaners. The next phase is roasting, which again has its very strict procedure. The final stage is certainly grinding and, at the very end, packaging,” Hasaković explained.
“Time needed for the raw coffee to be packed in a bag is roughly 30 minutes. Coffee is being produced in batches and new capacities of Vispak amount to 300 kilograms per a batch,” Hasaković added.
In the end, Hasaković highlighted that coffees in Vispak are conditioned by the prices on the world market, but that the latest roaster is ready for operation, thus doubling the capacities of this company.
(Source: faktor.ba)
