As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, the Osijek company Future Machines project is aimed primarily at encouraging agricultural production with an emphasis on organic and own food production. With it, they’re investing in a new factory and not only continuing the production tradition of the failed Osijek OLT, but going a step further.
Future Machines is the largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery in Osijek and is a family company owned by Darko and Matija Markovic. With its first investment in the purchase of the now bankrupt OLT plant and technology, the Osijek company Future Machines took over almost the entire programme of agricultural machinery of the failed company and today works mostly for the domestic market, while income from abroad ranges from 10-15 percent, most of which is from exports to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to director Matija Markovic, in its sixth year of existence, this company has regained the part of the market in which OLT used to be strongly present.
“I’m glad that people recognise us more and more and that we’re more and more present every year on the market in which there is a lot of competition from foreign mechanisation today,” says Markovic. Since they’re the only company in all of Croatia that produces pneumatic seed drills – the most complex agricultural machine with about 1000 positions and assemblies, most of their revenue comes from this product.
Through this new phase of development, investments in new plants are being made, with a total estimated value of 5 million kuna, and at the same time the innovative Taurus project is being completed, whose test production is already underway.
“The goal of the project is to enable the wider population to engage in agriculture, ie growing food in their own gardens through the simple application of machines and technological maps. In this way, but also through continuous improvements of the machine, our goal is to encourage agricultural production with an emphasis placed on organic and on the production of our own, domestic food, both for our own needs and for commercial purposes,” explained Markovic.
The Osijek company Future Machines innovative new ”Taurus” is designed as a vehicle of smaller proportions with an associated modular assembly to which tools or tillage attachments are attached, which are also being developed as part of the project.
These are 18 attachments, such as a plough, a mechanical and pneumatic seed drill, a cultivator, a fertiliser spreader and the like. Along with the machine itself, a technological map is being developed, and it consists of instructions for the production of vegetable crops with the simple use of a universal machine.
Instructions for the use of the machine would include about 30 vegetable crops with the attached technological map and the organisation of growing space, with an emphasis on organic production. The innovative element is precisely the modularity of the machine and the concept of use with the technological map, which is something new in Croatia and beyond.
“We could say that it’s a hybrid between motor cultivators and smaller tractors, and it’s based on modularity. Similar projects have been developed in the last century, but for some reason this has not come to life in any sort of wider application. That’s why we’re present the machine in a retro style,” stated Markovic.
In addition to the company’s professional staff, external experts in the field of design, marketing, agronomy, as well as the Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences in Osijek and TERA Tehnopolis, which deals with the promotion of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, ie connecting science and economy, are also important.
The Taurus project is in the final phase of the Osijek company Future Machines project, the production of a zero series of 8 machines is being completed, and as it is a prototype, they plan to place the zero series with special conditions through partners dealing with agriculture and forestry.
If all goes according to plan, they expect that serial production of Taurus will begin in 2023, after which they’ll also announce new employment and work on further development of the concept for the agricultural programme, as well as further adaptation to use the machine for communal purposes.
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