AS Group in Tešanj builds a modern purchasing station for fruit, vegetables, medicinal herbs…, worth one million KM

The Mayor of Tešanj Municipality Suad Huskić and the Executive Director of AS GROUP Armin Hrvić signed today a contract for the sale of land on which this Tešanj-based company will build a purchasing station with a cold storage facility for fruit, vegetables, forest fruits and medicinal herbs, worth one million KM, announced the Municipality of Tešanj, as reported by the Bosnian news agency Patria.

Hrvić said that the capacity of the cold storage facility is around 800 tons.

- The plan is for the purchasing station to start operating no later than spring, before the start of the next purchasing season. This investment is an integral part of the previously announced expansion of AS GROUP's capacities in the area of fruit and vegetable purchasing, with a focus on raspberries. In addition to the existing cold storage facility with a capacity of 1,000 tons of the food industry Klas d.d. Sarajevo, which operates within AS GROUP, by building a new cold storage facility in Tešanj we will expand our current capacity by 80% - said Hrvić.

In the Municipality's Development Strategy, adopted in April 2013, one of the planned goals was the construction of a modern station for purchasing agricultural products. Construction was planned for this year, and instead of using budget funds, it will be realized through a direct investment by AS GROUP.

The cooperation so far between the Municipality of Tešanj and AS GROUP has been very successful, contributing to the development of the Municipality in various areas. AS GROUP is currently the largest employer in the Municipality area with around 700 employees in its member companies (AS d.o.o., Napredak d.d., and Oaza d.o.o.). This project will increase the number of directly employed persons and help the development of agricultural activities in the Municipality area.

In this way, the number of indirectly employed persons will also increase, thereby raising the standard of living for those for whom agriculture is an additional activity.

In the Municipality of Tešanj, a system of incentives for agricultural production has been functioning since 2006. Since then, the payment of incentives has never been delayed, and in such a way that the payment for the current year is always within the calendar year.

Mayor Huskić reminded that in the last two years, the Municipality has allocated around one million KM, from its own and donor funds, for incentives and development of agricultural production.

- Although we are a territorially small municipality with fragmented holdings, we have 1,510 registered agricultural farms with a total of 2,531 members engaged in agricultural production. At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, about 60 new raspberry plantations were established. We are also seeing strong growth in chicken fattening, vegetable production for purchase, milk production, and especially fruit production for purchase. This region is traditionally famous for its exceptional fruit, and even better, the widely known "Tešanj jam", from which we intend to create a geographically protected brand in the future. So the new purchasing station is a strategic contribution to the further development of agriculture in the Municipality of Tešanj as a whole - emphasized Mayor Huskić.