One family tradition has won over the hearts (and taste buds) of Europe.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes on the 25th of May, 2018, the Buretić Bregi company has been dealing with various meat products for fifteen years now. On the picturesque slopes of Učka, Dalibor Buretić has continued his family tradition, a tradition which has seen the production of more than 100 years’ worth of domestic agricultural and livestock products, including meat and milk, generating autochthonous value.
“The recipes rely on (lean on) tradition, however, they’re refined with their own spice mixtures so as not to carry the taste of large industry produce, and to retain their primary quality and distinctiveness. Our product principle is actually ‘/what we put into the product is the product we’ll get”, and they’re simple combinations, with high quality raw materials,” revealed Dalibor Buretić.
For the past eight years, the company has stopped dealing with fresh meat sales and have shifted their primary focus onto meat products that they dry and process themselves. This small family enterprise, formerly consisting of just two or three employees, now employs ten people, and at the beginning of the year they also acquired new equipment owing to the help of EU funds. As Dalibor says, the way the products are made is more demanding because it includes fine meat processing, which demands more time for drying or cooking.
“Every ingredient in our products has its own origin, we know where it came from, and how it came about. We cooperate with excellent producers from Istria, Zagreb and Slavonia, as well as the border region of Slovenia. Of particular importance to us is the cooperation with an agricultural cooperative from the island of Cres, from which we’ve developed a range of lamb and mutton products, as well as excellent co-operation with the Karlić family for truffles from Buzeta and the surrounding areas,” Buretić continued.
Dalibor also revealed just how the company has seen growth of 8 to 12 percent each year over the last five years, and manages to achieve an annual turnover of between 4 and 5 million kuna. At the beginning, the products were placed in Rijeka and Opatija, and soon after, they found themselves all over the country. Since 2015, the markets of Slovenia, Austria, France and Switzerland have seen their products, and their produce can be found in Hofer, Lidl Croatia, as well as in a number of delicatessens.
”We don’t want to be the biggest, but the best”
”The quality of the production and presentation of our products is recognised every day by more and more people from the more demanding areas of the market of highly ranked restaurants and hotel companies like Jadranka Hotels Mali Lošinj, Valamar Riviera, Milenij Hotels, Liburnija Riviera Remisens,” Buretić noted. On average, on a monthly basis, six to eight tons of meat is processed, and this includes much sought-after traditional Istrian sausages, which are carefully produced without a single additive.
Their products, as well as the loving care put into them in typically traditional ways have opened many a door for this Croatian company.
“Such details, which have such a a strong emphasis on tradition, are deeply rooted in our people. We’re aware that such an approach can’t be provided by a cheap industrial product, and because of that, we don’t want to be the biggest, but the best,” concluded Buretić.
Click here for the original article by Marta Duic for Poslovni Dnevnik
