New silo of Agrogrnja in Beocin constantly filled – Expansion of storage capacities and further development of ship unloading services planned

(Agrogrnja silo in Beocin) The eKapija portal has opened a contest for the best investment in 2016 – Aurea 2017, and, in expectation of new winners, we've visited the companies shortlisted for last year's award in order to see how far they've come in developing their business.

The Backi Petrovac-based company Agrogrnja, last year's finalist for the investment of the year award Aurea, put its new silo in Beocin, with the capacity of 30,000 cubic meters, into operation in May 2016. Nine months later, they are pleased with how filled the storage capacities are, and, as Vladislav Nedic, General Manager of Agrogrnja, says for eKapija, the silo's capacities have been constantly filled since the opening.

– The newly built silo has had a very positive impact on our work. We've raised out operations to a greater level and had additional revenues, which was one of our primary goals. We are also unloading bulk cargo from ships, such as petroleum coke, plaster and other cargo within the international LafargeHolcim port, and this segment is an important new feature in our operations – our interviewee says.

Let us remind that the company started building a 30,000 m2 silo with a river port in Beocin in January 2015, with complete equipment for receiving, storing, reloading and drying grain cultures. The total value of the project amounted to around EUR 5 million, and the importance of the investment is also reflected in the fact that not one silo-port has been built on the Danube's south stream for the past several decades.

The silo-port in Beocin was built on the land with an area of 2 hectares, bought by Agrogrnja in the business park of Lafarge BFC, and the planned further expansion of the capacities will make it the largest silo-port on the Rhine-Main-Danube waterway (excluding Rotterdam and Constanta).

The company had announced the construction of around 70,000 cubic meters of additional storage space as the second phase of the Beocin silo-port project for late 2016 or early 2017. The works have not yet started, but the investment plan is still current, according to Nedic.

– We are constantly working on it and we are currently considering several options for the expansion of storage capacities – Nedic emphasizes.

The Beocin silo-port stores grain cultures, which are then transported by boat to new markets.

– We export corn, wheat and soy the most, and we shouldn't forget rapeseed or sunflower either, which have a considerable export potential. The biggest markets for grains and oleaceous plants are Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thanks to excellent quality of non-GMO soy from Serbia, the markets of Austria and Germany have lately become markets with great potential – Nedic explains and adds that this is the period when contracting jobs for the current year begins in agribusiness.

– We are pleased with how we were accepted by clients in 2016 and this provides a good basis for us to contract good jobs in 2017 as well.

(Ship unloading equipment) According to our interviewee, Agrogrnja's priority in the next period will be to further develop the services of the Beocin silo.

– We are working on it in order to be able to provide our current and future clients with the best service possible when it comes to storing, drying and reloading grains and oleaceous plants. We are also planning to further develop the service of bulk cargo unloading, which would make our operations in this location complete – Nedic concludes.

Agrogrnja was founded in 1996 in Pivnice as a family business. Their primary activity was the production of animal feed. Today, Agrogrnja buys out and sells agricultural products, stores grains and oleaceous plants, contracts agricultural production, exports, imports and mediates in international trade in Vojvodina.

Janko Grnja, owner and founder of Agrogrnja, is one of this year's candidates for EY entrepreneur of the year award.

K.S.

AgroGrnja Pivnice

LAFARGE BFC SRBIJA DOO BEOČIN