Diana Prpic works on her estate in Brežani near Karlovac in the continental part of Croatia. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 28th of October, 2019, this young farmer took over an OPG several years ago which was initially launched back in 2003 by her grandmother Mara. The creation of a sweet potato spread amusingly called “Batela” turned everything upside down.
“A lot has changed. And actually the thing that has changed the most is way I look for the market. Very quickly, I made my offer to customers on Facebook and today we are followed by more than 13,500 people. They all recognised the level of our hard work, the quality of our products. I have shipping everywhere. Watermelons and strawberries and raspberry products are particularly attractive. There are so many orders that I often stop at a highway intersection and wonder where it goes to Zagreb or Split,” Diana recounts for Vecernji List.
“We are always thinking of something new. So, a long time ago we started planting different types of pumpkins and we also have zucchini spaghetti that is particularly interesting to people. She describes how you cut the zucchini and how it comes out onto the dish looking like real spaghetti, and this is just one of the culinary delights that comes from your own garden and that Diana deals with. However, an absolute hit took the main stage with her offer of a spread of sweet potato, a so-called “Batela” that has become very popular since the end of last year, and production is growing month by month, it is being sent even to Australia, and soon to Singapore.
“I experimented with sweet potatoes, cooked them with maple syrup, added chocolate without refined sugar and then some coconut oil. I made 50 jars and put it online. I thought, if it goes, then it goes. Immediately everything sold out. Although I was afraid that the market would not be filled with Batella as an instant hit, the complete opposite happened. The interest in this spread is growing. Batella has literally turned our lives upside down,” admits Diana.
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