What is the connection between milk and tomato production? We found the answer in Baranja, at the Mitrovac farm, which operates within Fortenova’s Belje plus. Specifically, energy is produced from cow manure in a biogas plant to heat the greenhouse where tomatoes are grown. Last year alone, Belje’s dairy farming, together with its cooperatives, delivered 43.5 million liters of milk to Belje dairies. In the neighboring greenhouse, on 4.5 hectares, the bumblebees did their job back in February, and for more than a month now, tomatoes from hydroponic cultivation have been harvested. This ‘perpetual harvest’ will last until December.
Each plant yields an average of 19 kilograms of tomatoes, and the production per square meter is 62 kilograms, which, according to Belje, is an excellent result even on a global scale. The stem can grow up to eight meters, so harvesting is done on ‘levels’, and the lower harvested parts are wound at the bottom, so pickers do not need ladders.
– We harvest tomatoes four days a week and plan to pick about 80 tons each week – explains Robert Marković, manager of the Mitrovac Greenhouse: – Last year we produced 20 percent more than planned, and this year we expect further increases.
Belje plus is the largest employer in the Osijek-Baranja County with 1,600 employees at seventy production locations. Last year, it achieved revenues of 1.57 billion kuna (a growth of about ten percent), and reported a profit of 23.6 million kuna (compared to a loss of 48 million in 2020).
On twenty thousand hectares of arable land, record amounts of barley, wheat, and sugar beet were produced in 2021. It holds a third of the share in domestic fattening production and emphasizes that it encourages continuous cooperation with cooperatives throughout Croatia.
Along with the dairy in Beli Manastir, last year, the Osijek dairy was taken over as part of Belje plus and the Osijek dairy together with cooperatives from Meggle, which withdrew from production in Croatia. In Beli Manastir, ABC fresh cream cheese is still produced, and the Osijek dairy has started producing dairy products ‘Kravica Kraljica’. In just six months, they claim at Belje plus, it became the fastest-growing brand in Croatia in 2021. Of course, Belje cannot be imagined without the production of cured sausages and bacon, as well as viticulture and winemaking.
Since February, the CEO of Belje plus has been Tihomir Adam, an experienced company manager who replaced Andreja Dean and is also at the helm of the supervisory boards of Vupik plus, PIK Vinkovci plus, and Vinke plus. Dean left Fortenova, and no one has been appointed to his position as executive director responsible for the entire agricultural sector. Fortenova Agriculture is in the spotlight due to the alleged preparation of the entire complex for sale. There is no shortage of interested buyers: Pavao Vujnovac is increasing his ownership stake in Fortenova; Darko Aračić confirmed to Lider that the Požega Agronom, or its majority owner Czech Agrofert, is interested; in this context, Marko Pipunić, Hungarian OTP Bank, and even Serbian ‘meat king’ Petar Matijević have been regularly mentioned, but he is reportedly only interested in Vupik. The most serious candidates for the purchase of Fortenova Agriculture have been mentioned as mandatory pension funds. Meanwhile, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Indotek group, a Hungarian investment fund majority-owned by one of the richest Hungarians, Dániel Jellinek, acquired 43 percent of the shares in the Fortenova group from Sberbank and became the largest individual co-owner.
