As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, the founder and CEO of the Croatian NUTRIS Group, Zvonimir Sedlic, said that he is very proud of the group for being the very first to implement a revolutionary process in the extraction of plant ingredients from beans as one of the best sources of protein. He is also proud of the fact that the Croatian NUTRIS Group has constructed the very first European hybrid factory.
“The factory will use the latest technology to produce high-quality ingredients of plant origin with an emphasis primarily placed on proteins. By cooperating with Croatian farmers, we’re contributing to the revitalisation of Croatian agriculture, and we’re proud of the sustainability of the production process based on the principles of the circular economy. The opening of the factory is the first step towards the construction of agro-industrial NUTRIS.park ™ to connect all of these processes in one single location, from primary production, research and development, all the way to industrial production and socially useful, educational and sport facilities for all those who believe in our nutritional, innovative and sustainable concept,” said the founder and CEO of the Croatian NUTRIS Group, Zvonimir Sedlic.
With an investment worth a massive 220 million kuna, the Croatian NUTRIS Group officially opened the very first European hybrid factory for the production of high quality ingredients of plant origin by processing beans and potatoes in Novi Senkovac near Slatina. The investment was realised in partnership with the Danish company Sicca Dania, one of the leading companies in the field of engineering solutions for the food industry.
The factory applies revolutionary technology, which the University of Copenhagen has been developing for more than a decade now, and Sicca Dania and NUTRIS.tech ™ have intensively tested, further improved and, as they claim, proven their application in the industrial environment. However, according to the founder and President of the Management Board of the Croatian NUTRIS Group, this is only the first phase of a major investment cycle, which includes the expansion of the existing plant by the year 2025 and the construction of the NUTRIS.park ™ by the year 2030.
The factory produces protein, starch and fiber isolates from beans and potatoes and currently cooperates with more than 250 farmers and employs 50 experts. Their goal is to reach a production capacity of 70,000 tonnes of high-quality ingredients for the food industry by the year 2025 in cooperation with more than a thousand family farms, as well as to create another hundred new jobs.
The process of obtaining isolates is sustainable and represents the pinnacle of the global food industry from the perspective of complexity and in terms of the sheer level of investment. Their ingredients of plant origin enter the market under the name NutriSmart and are of superior quality, adapted to vegetarians and vegans, don’t contain gluten or allergens and have a neutral taste, and are produced from local raw materials from the EU. They’re aimed at the food industries in the fastest growing markets, which include the EU, North America and Asia.
“I’d like to congratulate you on the realisation of a project that applies innovative technology and a sustainable approach to doing business, using the principles of the circular economy. This is a very high-tech investment in the rural area of Slavonia, it will create jobs and it has the aim to have the largest possible share of raw materials for production procured from local producers is in line with the Croatian Agriculture Strategy until 2030.
The Group is also a producer that successfully uses the funds of the Rural Development Programme to invest in potato warehouses. This tender was created as a quick, long-term sustainable and development solution of the Ministry of Agriculture for the problem faced by Croatian potato producers due to the ban on plant protection products (such as chlorpropham), and the contracted value of aid for it stands at almost 103 million kuna,” said the Minister of Agriculture, Marija Vuckovic, adding that so far in Virovitica-Podravina County, the agreed value of aid is 1.1 billion kuna and 967 million kuna has been paid, along with almost 33 million kuna COVID-19 aid measures.
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