„Agro Startup“ conference held at Faculty of Agriculture Zagreb!

At the conference was also participating members of academic community, private sector and media. Organizer of the conference are association “Land and people” and agency Apriori World.

Conference was opened by minister of agriculture, Tomislav Tolušić and president of association “Land and people”, Miroslav Kovač.

 

Minister Tolušić said to the students: “Ministry has secured 50 000 euros of non-refundable funds for startups. I would like if you would find courage and start, because the young should set agriculture in motion. Ministry is at your disposal.”

The opening was followed by introductory lectures from dean of Faculty of Agronomy, prof. Ph. D. Zoran Grgić and tenured professor of Faculty of Veterinary and Vice Rector for innovation, technology transfer and communications, prof. Ph. D. Miljenko Šimpraga who explained more closely the role of college and university in creating and developing startup companies. 

 

Short brake was followed by Denis Matijević, Chairman of the Board of the company Agrofructus, who presented their project assignment: Development of a business idea connected to the process of bringing fruits and vegetables from field to table.  The assignment is primarily intended for students of Faculty of Agronomy. Ideas which satisfy criteria are all ideas connected to production, processing and marketing of fruits and vegetables, as well as any other ideas connected to fruits and vegetables. Agrofructus Group is ready to invest in realization of the best project or even more of them, through two options: investing maximally   1. 000. 000,00 kunas in shared company or buy the project from the project team with maximally 100.000,00 kunas. Presentation of the project resolution will be at the 2nd Agricultural conference “Slavonika”, which is being held on February 23th, 2017 at Faculty of Agriculture in Osijek.

 

After the presentation of the project assignment and students’ questions, Mirko Ervačić from Osatina group held a presentation as an example of entrepreneurial growth which can encourage startup companies.  Jure Mikuž from SCV/ENIF fund talked about idea of agritech startup, while Krešimir Šimičić, sales manager from Agrivi, gave example of successful agritech startup. 

After lunch the presentations continued on the subject of challenges of Croatian startups in agriculture. Jan Marinac, president of Croatian association of young agriculturists Agro, was first and he explained the advantages and challenges of startup company in Croatia on a example from practice, Vegie d.o.o. He was followed by Nino Lulić, director of company Social Wizard, explained importance of digital technologies in development of agro sector. Those two presentations were followed by round table, where distinguished experts from sectors of vegetable-growing, fruit growing, viticulture and cattle breeding, discussed about examples, products and guidelines of new technology in their sectors.

The last presentation was on a subject “Are autochthonous agricultural products startup stories?” being held by Karmen Sinković from Ministry of Agriculture. The conference finished at 18 pm. It was a sucessful day, filled with presentations, discusions and socializing, where young agriculturists had an opportunity to connect with companies and personas who could help them to become a sucess story for some future “Agro Startup” conference.