When Melita Pokorni graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture in Zagreb (since the 1990s known as the Agronomy Faculty), majoring in horticulture and landscape design, she thought she would one day work on the landscaping of green spaces and parks that Daruvar has been rich in since the time of Count Antun Janković, or the second half of the 18th century. However, she says, life writes strange stories; her profession became a hobby, and her occupation as a dairy farmer came about quite by chance, just like most Croatian entrepreneurs.
With a loan of 65,000 German marks and no experience in the dairy industry, she launched the mini dairy Biogal in 1995. It was, she recalls, a very brave decision that bordered on madness, especially due to the loan and the uncertain business climate, as the Military-Police Operation ‘Flash’ was conducted at that time, liberating western Slavonia during the Homeland War.
How to Compete with the Competition
Biogal started operating with a modest two hundred liters of cow’s milk per day, purchased from about thirty local cooperatives. The milk was processed into drinking milk and fresh cheese, which Pokorni sold to small local shops and bakeries. However, she admits that she reluctantly remembers those difficult beginnings. As the owner and director of the small dairy, she spent most of her time there, making it her second home and the employees her second family.
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With the arrival of large retail chains, small shops began to disappear, which also affected part of our sales. We could not compete with the fresh dairy programs of industrial dairies, but we realized that if we wanted to succeed, we had to be original, that is, special, and offer the market something that other dairies do not do. Such thinking required greater investment in space and equipment.
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– Over the years, we grew and developed by increasing the amount of processed milk and introducing new products such as yogurt, cream, dairy spreads, and butter, while also finding new customers: local schools, kindergartens, and homes for the elderly. In the city of Daruvar, we also introduced home delivery of our products, so today the residents of Daruvar have the rare privilege of consuming healthy and fresh dairy products made exclusively from local milk from nearby farms. With the arrival of large retail chains, small shops began to disappear, which also affected part of our sales. We could not compete with the fresh dairy programs of industrial dairies, but we realized that if we wanted to succeed, we had to be original, that is, special, and offer the market something that other dairies do not do. Such thinking required greater investment in space and equipment. Fortunately, in 2006, we were recognized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and we entered a joint investment program for the construction of a facility for the production of semi-hard and hard cheeses worth $100,000. USAID provided $50,000, and we covered the rest with investments in the building and equipment. Of course, this gave us a huge boost and allowed us to realize our desire to become a home for cheese delicacies,” says Pokorni.
Resolved Sales Issues
In addition to cow’s milk, Biogal began purchasing goat’s milk and producing semi-hard cheeses from both cow’s and goat’s milk. By listening to customer desires, it also produced the first versions of smoked cow’s and goat’s cheese. At the Cheese Days in Bjelovar in 2007, it was noticed by, emphasizes Pokorni, the then largest domestic retail chain Konzum, and at its initiative, the company entered into a joint collaboration, so from then on, Biogal’s cow cheese Vacca and goat cheese Capra could be purchased throughout Croatia.
– Given Konzum’s size and reach, our sales were no longer in question, but that did not stop us from thinking about new cheeses and flavors that cannot be found in our area. It took time and various tested technologies to achieve the desired flavors, textures, and aromas that we offer today. We carefully select all the ingredients we use to enhance our cheeses and add them studiously to intrigue customers and encourage them to find their favorite cheese delicacy in our offer. Today, we have twenty types of cheese with various additions based on three different technologies. With the first cheeses with spice additions, named Biberek, or cow cheese with green pepper, and Feferonek, cow cheese with hot pepper, we covered Slavonia in flavor. Then the idea was born to cover all of Croatia with flavors and aromas, leading to the creation of cow cheese with black and green olives Olivek, cow cheese with Mediterranean spices Začinek, and cow cheese with capers Kaparis for the Mediterranean area. In our ‘alchemical’ workshop, the most valued and best-selling cheese was born, whether it is cow, goat, or sheep cheese, which, combined with the ‘king of the forest’, black and white truffles, covered the area of Istria and the coastal part of Slovenia. This cheese delicacy is said to require a palate that will know how to appreciate and respect its specific royal taste. Hedonism? Why not? But the story does not end there: we added two more nuts, which few would combine with cheese, in the hope that instead of chocolate or dessert after a fine meal, a slice or two of cheese with roasted hazelnuts would be eaten. Thus, we got Cheesenut, and by adding roasted pistachios, Pistakion,” describes Pokorni.
Like Climbing a Mountain
In order for three more top cheese delicacies to emerge from Biogal’s cheese kitchen, Pokorni further expanded the facility, and soon a cheese with white noble mold Nobelis will see the light of day, both as pure and with porcini mushrooms and white truffles. The expansion began in 2018, and Biogal grew from the original sixty square meters to four hundred square meters of facility, creating the conditions for increased capacity and the production of new cheese delicacies. A small ethnic shop is also planned within the cheese factory, and Pokorni is considering more innovations in the coming years.
– However, in Biogal’s life cycle, which looked like climbing a mountain with many obstacles, the corona crisis occurred, which completely blocked us. Regardless of knowledge and experience, we found ourselves in a state of total helplessness: schools were closed, there was no tourism, and raw materials from cooperatives were arriving at the dairy daily. The situation was unbearable, and the ultimate outcome was the end of business, that is, the termination of contracts with cooperatives and employees. Thanks to the understanding of the director of milk procurement and production development of the Dukat dairy, Antun Milić, and the coordinator of the Milk Procurement Sector at Vindija, Krunoslav Ladić, and their procurement of our collected milk, we survived and preserved our cooperatives. Thanks to government measures, we kept our employees and the company alive. The corona crisis left negative consequences on our financial operations, although positive results are visible on the final account, which were largely due to the received support within the government measures package and measure 21 of the Agency for Payments in Agriculture, Fisheries, and Rural Development for 2021. In 2022, we returned to full form and continued to invest in equipment and employees, increasing their salaries and raising the prices of raw materials for cooperatives,” describes Pokorni.
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