December the 19th, 2021 - OPG Matulic from the island of Pasman just off the coast of Zadar began working only a decade ago, and they have attracted the attention of not only locals, but also the much larger Zagreb market.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/PD VL native tim writes, the Matulic family farm (OPG Matulic) from the island of Pasman was started ten years ago by Krsto and Ana Matulic. This family business includes growing olives, figs and chili peppers. They started with just one hundred seedlings, and today they have over 2000 seedlings of various chili peppers each and every year.
˝We're a small family farm, currently there are three of us, we have one hectare of land and we don't sell raw materials, only the finished products. We grow chili, figs, aloe vera, and we also have a lot of wild plants. My husband Krsto is in charge of the field and spices, and I'm in charge of cosmetics. This year has been very challenging and intense. Throughout the pandemic, we set up a production facility and devoted a little more time to online sales. There were also some other novelties. I launched three new products: Sea Tail - hand cream, Belle - face foam and the summer hit Lady sunshine. Krsto made some amazing chocolate with fig and maraschino acetate and olive oil,'' Ana Matulic said as she began OPG Matulic's story.
They started online sales a year and a half ago, and as they point out from OPG Matulic, they're very satisfied with the results and sales they've experienced so far, especially during the festive period. In their shop on Pasman, you can buy only their products, from hot sauces, flavoured salts, fig oils and acetates, to cosmetics based on olive oil and new sorts of chocolate. Back in the beginning, the majority of their products were bought by foreigners, and today there are more and more domestic customers who visit them and buy them as gifts for others and for themselves. The best-selling and most sought-after products are Pasman Libre fig aceto and Immortelle face cream.
The products from OPG Matulic have been awarded the Croatian Island Product label, three times they received the Sunflower Award of Croatian Rural Tourism, and they also received the Superior Taste Award for their Pasmanero in 2017 and for their Pasman libre fig aceto back in 2018, making them the very first small domestic producer with that award.
The International Taste Award in Italy back in 2020 went to the Pasman Libre for gold and silver went to their Pasmanero and wine vinegar. The latest award OPG Matulic took home was the Great Taste Award, and they received as many as three stars in England for Pasman Libre. Out of over 14,000 registered products, only 211 received three stars. They aren't aiming at having their products placed on the shelves of retail chains, as they say, they prefer small delicatessens and specialised shops, for example, Gligora has their products in its larger stores in Zagreb, Zadar and Kolan, and during the season they're present in a number of small shops on the coast and islands from Vis to Korcula, Hvar and Brac.
˝A lot of our restaurants in Pasman take our hot Pasmanero and Pasman Libre fig vinegar sauces. We're represented in catering and hospitality trades on Murter, Korcula, in Dubrovnik and in Zadar, and most recently in Zagreb in the new restaurant Al Dente in Bogoviceva street. In fact, someone often calls us from various restaurants and asks for an offer. However, since we don't sell our spices in larger packages than those available on the website, this will be a problem for most people in catering and hospitality. Some people, however, decide to take what we offer them and are generally satisfied. We don't have classic collaborations with hotels, but a few of them take our products for their souvenir shops, and some occasionally for gifts for their VIP guests. One of the longest collaborations we have is with Adriatic Sailing Charter, which takes our gift packages for guests on their luxury yachts,'' they stated from OPG Matulic.
When it comes to their spices, they produce most of the raw materials themselves, they buy figs from the local population right there on the island of Pasman, and when it comes to the production of cosmetics, they also cooperate with other family farms from which they purchase hydrolates, essential oils and beeswax. The production is located within their family house on the ground floor, and as Matulic explains, it is both an economic and residential space, and the production plant covers about 40 square metres in total.
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