The 2nd edition of the Agro Startup Conference

More than 150 students of agriculture have gathered on the event which was opened by the Minister of Agriculture and Special Envoy of Croatian Prime-Minister, Mr. Tomislav Tolušić who said: „Croatian Ministry of Agriculture pays a lot of attention to young farmers and generational renewal in agriculture. Therefore, through the agricultural measures 6.1, we have been encouraging rural development. Besides that, we have been changing the procedures in order to reduce periods of waiting for the results of public tenders. Croatia still has a lot of quality, unpolluted agricultural land which youn farmers can use for agricultural production.

 

European funds  ensure a certain financial stability so young farmers can compete for the funds and use their knowledge in order to start their agricultural businesses.„

 

On this occasion and on behalf of the institutional partner of Agro Startup Conference, Mrs. Vedrana Jelušić Kašić, Director of EBRD for Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, and Hungary said: „EBRD is the holder of dialogue between a private and public sector and we support initiatives which connect entrepreneurship and young farmers. As a financial institution, EBRD has several funds which invest in startups in order to stimulate them for agro-business. In this part of the world, agriculture has still been going through transformation thanks to the new technologies like drones and robots. Events like Agro Startup Conference ensure young people introduction with the new trends“

 

The main goal of this conference is to inspire young people for starting agro-business. Therefore, this year's program offered them lots of interesting presentations and case studies which provide students a better view in all of the possibilities of agricultural business. 

 

The students had an opportunity to listen to the lectures about creating new products;  the new promising culture in the production of biofuels; the role of Croatian Agriculture Agency as well as about the projects Biogas Action and uP_running. 

 

Concerning the importance of financial aspects in starting agro-business, financial experts have presented the possibilities of financing the agro-startups. There was also held a panel discussion about bureaucracy barriers in starting an agro-business. 

 

Other topics were related to the modern agrarian policy, the use of drones in precision agriculture, and financial management. 

 

The most interesting part of the program were case studies presented by 2 representatives of the young formers: Agro Noršić and OPG Lenac who told their stories about success, but also about the barriers which they faced with.

During the conference, two videos about successful stories from Taiwan were shown. The projects Sanpuko and Puremilk were supported by EBRD.

The conference was organized by Apriori World and its partners: Croatian Association of Young Farmers, Faculty of Agriculture Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture Osijek, European Bank for Development and Reconstruction and Ministry of Agriculture which is also the official patron of this event.  The conference has also been supported by various companies and institutions: Croatian County Association, Croatian Chamber of Commerce, Cockta, Podravka, Cetina, Pioneer Sjeme, Wuestenrot, IN2, Press clipping, Croatian Bank for Development and Reconstruction, AWT International, Naturel, Kutjevo and media partners: Agroklub and Agrobiz. 

 

The first edition of this conference was held in October 2016. The wish of the organizer is to make Agro Startup Conference a central event for the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and experience of young farmers, experts, institutions and all others involved in Croatian agriculture.