IM Matijevic asks for land ownership not to limit the number of hectares that can be rented

Petar Matijevic, the owner of the eponymous meat packing company and the largest landowner in Serbia, has asked the government to amend the regulations so that he could rent even more land, Blic learns.

Matijevic has 32,000 hectares where he produces nearly all farming cultures. He owns 19,000 hectares and has rented an additional 12,000 hectares from the state in the past dozen years. Given his plans for the expansion of his business and the development of livestock farming, Blic writes, this is not enough.

– Matijevic wants the state to amend the regulations pertaining to the lease of state land. Practically, the state should amend the regulations so that the land already owned does not limit the number of hectares that can be rented from the state. Matijevic would thereby be provided with more space and the possibility of getting more land from the state. In theory, an owner of a hundred head of livestock can now rent 100 hectares of state land. If that owner already has 100 hectares of his own land, he can't rent any more land, whereas, if he had 70 hectares and a hundred head of livestock, he could rent 30 hectares of state land – the Blic source says.

IM Matijevic produces 10,000 young cattle, 300,000 pigs, 35,000 young pigs, 8,000,000 chickens, 78,800 heavy chickens, 6,000 lambs and 434 sheep.

On the other hand, Zoran Matijevic, Petar's son and the director of the agrarian department, says for Blic that this initiative will benefit everyone.

– It's not good that we import 30% of the pork we consume in Serbia, as well as poultry and beef, while having unused land. Our idea is for the state to offer land to livestock farmers for lease and upgrade livestock farming. We would take 5,000 hectares at the price of 100 to 150 euros per hectare and use the land to produce cultures used in the production of animal feed – Matijevic told Blic.

In that case, Matijevic would have a total of 37,000 hectares of land, of which 19,000 hectares would be owned by him.

IM Matijevic currently employs 2,400 people in farming and retail. The company consists of 30 business entities in the fields of farming, trade and hospitality. It owns properties Bezdan and Ravnica in Bajmok, Jednota in Kovacica, Zlatica near Zrenjanin... Furthermore, Matijevic also owns around 1,500 hectares of arable land in Croatia. With the purchase of a share in two agricultural cooperatives in Croatia, in Stari Jankovci and Negoslavci, Matijevic also became the largest owner of arable land in that country.

The company owns seven farms (Futog, Lazarevo, Vrsac, Bajmok, Jedinstvo), where it produces eight million chickens, 10,000 cattle and 6,000 sheep, among other products.

IM Matijević d.o.o. Novi Sad

IM Matijevic

Petar Matijevic

farming land

Zoran Matijevic

Zlatica combine in Lazarevo near Zrenjanin

Ravnica combine Bajmok

Bezdan combine

Futog farm

Lazarevo farm

Vrsac farm

Bajmok farm

Jedinstvo farm

cattle

pigs

chickens

lambs

sheep