The Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, accompanied by ministers Đuro Popijač, Petar Čobanković, and Branko Vukelić, as well as Giancarlo Galana, the Italian Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, today opened the newly built production facility of KIM Dairy Karlovac.
As highlighted by Mato Zadro, CEO of Dukat Dairy Industry, during the ceremonial event, after acquiring KIM and an additional capital injection of 58 million kuna, Dukat has rounded off its investment of 20 million euros with this state-of-the-art facility for the production and packaging of long-life milk in the široj region. This Dukat investment was the largest single investment within the entire Lactalis group in the past year, Zadro stated, adding that with this facility, which includes a line for the production of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles, KIM Dairy Karlovac has become Dukat’s production and export center in the long-life milk sector for the entire Southeast European region.
Thus, after France and Belgium, Croatia has become the third market of the Lactalis group where the most advanced HDPE packaging technology for long-life milk has been introduced, and the processing and filling capacity of the newly built facility is 75 million liters of milk annually. All other KIM’s existing range of fermented products will be produced in Dukat’s facilities in Zagreb and Bjelovar. Although milk procurement in Croatia is significantly declining, according to Alan Fontana, General Director of Dukat for Croatia, in Dukat’s system, this decline is the smallest, amounting to eight percent annually, thanks to Dukat’s annual investments of 30 million kuna in villages and cooperatives. In this regard, Mato Zadro announced further investments in the raw material base to further increase Dukat’s efficiency and competitiveness, as well as to strengthen its share in the total exports to the markets of the Lactalis group. (Mladen Volarić)
