After they launched business of breeding turkeys a year and a half ago, 26-year-old friends Amar Salković and Armin Mustafić from Tuzla started thinking about expanding their business.
However, the complicated administration slowed them down in their intention to open a butcher shop where they would sell tasty and fresh turkey meat per kilogram. Amar Salković says that the butcher shop would round up the process of breeding and selling turkey meat, which is quite expensive for BiH citizens if entire turkey is being bought.
One turkey weighs between 10 and 12 kilograms, and the price is 10 BAM per kilogram.
In order for these hardworking young men to open a butcher shop, the must open a slaughterhouse for that purpose. That would be the first turkey slaughterhouse in FBiH and authorities find this all unknown, because they have never had such request before. That is why everything is going slower than expected.
For now, Salković and Mustafić have temporary permits, but they hope that authorities will engage more and help them.
While the authorities are also learning on their example, Salković says that there are certainly interested buyers who would want to buy smaller amounts of meat. He is optimistic that they will obtain all necessary consents soon.
They launched the turkey farm “Amas” last year in the settlement Brnjik in Ćelić, some 40 kilometers away from Tuzla and so far, they have invested around 70.000 BAM in the entire project.
“We came up with this idea, actually Armin suggested that we launch a business together. We did some research and found out that no one in BiH deals with turkey meat. We started slowly. I left my job at the firm where I was working, took a credit, and Armin also took a credit and we launched the business together,” said Salković, adding that their occupations are not even close to poultry production.
Salković is a road traffic technician, while Mustafić is an architecture technician and they knew nothing about turkeys when they decided to launch the business of breeding those animals.
The young men buy little turkey from a seller in Orašje soon after they hatch. They hired the unemployed locksmith Mirzet Mujić for feeding and taking care of the animals. In the beginning, Mujić also knew nothing about these animals, but he soon adjusted to his new occupation.
Owners of the first BiH turkey farm say that in the beginning they also faced market obstacles because they had products, but it was uncertain whether they will manage to sell them.
“We sent thousands of emails, but no one responded. In the end, the Meat Industry Menprom responded and bought all turkey meat that we had. Then we started with another round and Menprom again bought all the meat. They bought the meat, but we left 200 pieces for our butcher shop,” Salković said.
Salković added that they expect their business to pay off after two years. Taking into consideration that there is great interest in turkey meat. After they start selling turkey meat in the butcher shop where they will move in these days, in the future they intend to open two more butcher shops in Tuzla, one in Brčko and one in Sarajevo.
(Source: faktor.ba/photo: tuzlanski.ba)
