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All analysis carried out in Bosnia show that this region possesses good conditions necessary for producing and processing fruit while the high quality fruit and vegetables that are grown here can be used as a final product in fresh form, but also as raw material for processing.
Thanks to the country's natural wealth and variety of climates, some of the crops can be grown several times in the same year. All this provides an opportunity for investors to repay an investment quickly and to ensure continuous supply of raw material to the market.
Ljiljana Vukelic, director of Prijedorcanka, one of the leading processors of fruits in Bosnia, points out that geographically speaking, Bosnia and Herzegovina has a great potential for further development of the fruit growing. However she is not sure that the country right now has the capacity to become a manufacturer and processing center. Most certainly she would like to see that one day.
"Not only the cost of transport would be reduced, but the losses during transport from remote destinations, time, and other costs would completely vanish if only producers would take Bosnian fruit and process it here in the country,” she says.
Talking about how much fruit they find in the BH market ready for production and whether it is enough, she says that they encounter problems . "As for the procurement of raw material on the BH, that is industrial fruit, we have problems such as high prices and insufficient quantities needed for our production. At this point, 40 percent of the overall raw materials we are importing from countries of the region, where Serbia has the highest percentage, "said Vukelic to eKapija.
However, there has been some positive shifts in terms of the ratio of imports, which has substantially decreased over the past five years when they were up to 80%.
The largest share in production last year had the plum which accounted for 60% of all production. Right behind are apples, pears and cherries that make up the other 39%, and only one percent of the production was drupe fruit, mostly due to very high prices and adverse climatic conditions.
In the future, Prijedorcanka is planning to increase the deep-frozen production for cherry, berries, industrial strawberry and plums.
D.Kozina
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