The harvest of millions of seedlings of immortelle planted on plantations across Herzegovina began. Farmers organized themselves and stated harvesting the plant that will bring profit already on that day. Reporters visited the plantations in Mostarko Blato that are literally all yellow thanks to the flowers of the mature immortelle. The scent lured them to the plantation of Ino Soldo from Knešpolje near Široki Brijeg, where they found a happy team of workers who were harvesting this gold of Herzegovina. Especially joyful was the owner of the plantation, who did not hide satisfaction with good harvest and quality.
“At this plantation we have 14.000 planted seedlings, and this is the first year that we have a harvest. This soil is perfect for immortelle, we started harvesting yesterday and today we will finish this plantation where we will find more than eight tons of immortelle. The effort and the work paid off, we sold the immortelle to one distillery in Stolac and they pay for the purchased goods immediately. When it comes to price, the prices can always be better, but this price of three BAM per kilogram is not bad, either,” said Soldo, adding that this is the job of the future and that it could easily happen that there is no arable land in Herzegovina that is not cultivated. “Only here in Knešpolje, more than 600.000 seedlings were planted already. Next year, we are looking at the amount of around 500 tons during harvest season, and people could get over 1.5 million BAM, and who knows how many villages like this there is in Herzegovina,” said Soldo.
The fact is that Herzegovina is planted in dozens of millions of immortelle seedlings that should become mature next year. It is easy to calculate how much money will flow into Herzegovina these days and in the future, to the farmers who recognized the business and started planting immortelle. The market and the purchase are yet to be regulated, but as for now it seems definite that Herzegovina has future in immortelle. Mostarsko Blato and other fields across the sunny, Mediterranean Herzegovina will smell like immortelle.
(Source: abcportal.info/photo: Ivan Ramić-abcportal.info)