November 19, 2017 - All over Croatia, often under the radar, small groups of individuals are working on projects to improve the country. Meet the New Zealander inspired by the words of a former Prime Minister, who is working with local partners to introduce the kiwi fruit to Croatian agriculture.
Last month I was fortunate enough to visit arguably Croatia's leading olive oil producer during the pressing of the annual olive harvest - Chiavalon in Istria. While the Chiavalon Brothers' olive oil story is very inspirational (30 trees from a grandfather at the age of 13, about 17,000 litres a year today and ranked in the top 15 olive oils in the world), an altogether more fascinating part of their business relates to their decision to take over 185 hectares of fallow land in the Rasa Valley and plant 60 types of fruits, vegetables and cereals to see what would do best in the Istrian context. One of the clear winners from the first season were the organic watermelons, not a noted Istrian speciality, and one which they sold easily to the region's hotels. Plans to develop a huge organic food production facility on land which has not been farmed for 35 years and then sold to hotels and restaurant will be a great addition to the Istrian gourmet story. You can read more about it here.
I mention the project due to an email I received from New Zealand this week. We have had a fantastic response to our social media call for foreign entrepreneurs doing business in Croatia, and we launched our new weekly series with the story of an innovative Romanian couple in Split. There were several other emails from people who had not moved to Croatia, but were actively doing fascinating things in Croatia, including my correspondent from New Zealand who decided to get involved in the project below after being inspired by a speech from visiting then-Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic.
Could the Neretva Valley soon become the next home for the successful growing of kiwis?
(An orchard of gold kiwi in Italy - the kiwi fruit is slightly smaller than back in New Zealand. Photo credit Tony Sinkovich)
Tony Sinkovich introduced himself and the project in the email below. He wanted to emphasise that this is very much a team effort, with various partners, both local and international, but I think his original email sums up the project pretty well. A very interesting story, and one we will be following.
"Starting this story....I am a 63 yr old NZ born of Croatian descent. My grandparents on both my father and mother were born in Croatia. My fathers parents were both born in Gradac Dalmacija, Croatia. I have been active in the fruit industry for most of my life and when PM Milanovic visited NZ 4 years ago I was encouraged by his comments that Croatia needed NZ expertise to help build the nation, not money. I saw this as an opportunity to look to introduce Gold Kiwifruit as a product for growing in the Neretva Region. I had seen on a number of my visits the intensity of fruit growing in the region but was told that making money was difficult as prices were always low.
"So, in 2014 I visited Zagreb and with govt officials sowed the seed to get the idea of diversifying their product range in Croatia with kiwifruit been the opyimum product. The reasoning behind this was Zespri (the owner and plant breeder of the brand Sungold) was getting initial success with this variety in Asia. The idea met with lukewarm response mainly due there was no indication of its value in the European Market.
"However I was keen to pursue so this year I tackled this project a little differently by getting Zespri to be interested in growing this variety outside NZ and Italy. The success of the NZ sales programme in Europe and Asia in the summer season encouraged Zespri to introduce plantings in Italy and other countries. Some of those other countries have had mixed success due to climate and ground limitations. I was given encouragement from Zespri and associates to pursue the Croatian option as the success and growth of the sales programme of Zespri worldwide needing a Global Marketing period for 12 months.
"I approached Dragan Crnomarkovic and Robert Doko in the Neretva region. Both are leading agronomists and after a number of visitations including showing the success of the product we decided to go to the growers to present the case for diversification and with the intention of putting a trial block firstly so as we could judge its success. We are intending to do that in the New Year. I have involved my very good friend Craig Lemon from Southern Orchards NZ who has had experience in introducing this variety in NZ and employing similar strategies for Croatian growing. In the last few weeks we have traversed the Neretva region and are confident that kiwifruit can grow in the region with success. The gereen variety was planted with success over 40 years ago but due to having little commercial value growers pulled them out in favour of other fruits.
NZ has a very successful export economy and it was with this intention of encouraging the region to become export focussed on this product. The gold kiwifruit has had a big season in Europe this last year with NZ fruit with very strong pricing and an equally strong demand. Zespri are one of the world's most successful brands (a kiwifruit one). They would control the marketing and proceeds will flow back to growers.
"All I want to see if the region is ideally suited for gold kiwifruit production, the growers will be the ones to benefit.
"So I hope that is not too long winded but a snapshot on what we are working on. Whats in it for me?? Not a lot...I may look to plant some if land was available....yes my friend Craig Lemon will be the key person for management of this project along with Dragan and Robert. We intend to look at a joint venture with growers for this to work with everyone on the risk and reward basis."
Thanks Tony and team - good luck and looking forward to the updates.
Not familiar with the Neterva Valley or why it is often referred to as the Croatian California, with its 1.4 million madarin trees, to name but one fruit? Check out the video below.
