Srebrenica residents produce pellets for the EU

In Zeleni Jadar near Srebrenica, a factory for the production of pellets EKO-M was officially opened on Thursday, employing 25 workers, and owner Marius de Wilt from the Netherlands immediately announced the expansion of production and new jobs, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

Zeleni Jadar is about ten kilometers from Srebrenica and was formerly a center of the wood industry with around 1,600 employees, and the furniture produced at this location was also placed on the American market. Unfortunately, all these facilities and jobs were destroyed during the bloody conflicts from 1992 to 1995.

Marica Simić, deputy director of the EKO-M factory, said today that the Srebrenica pellet factory exports 80 percent of its products to Italy, Slovenia and Austria, and part to Greece, and plans to expand the market to Germany and the Netherlands.

Marius de Wilt, who invested in this modern plant, announced the imminent delivery of new machines to Srebrenica and an increase in production of up to 1,000 tons of pellets per month, which will mean about ten new jobs, writes Patria.

EKO-M is the third company opened in Srebrenica in 2014. Earlier, the cooperative Bios from Visoko opened a broiler chicken farm in Srebrenica, a few months later Klas started pasta production in Srebrenica, and on Thursday the pellet factory officially began operations, writes Patria.