10/01/2009

News / Serbian Foods Find International Markets

U.S. international aid agency helps small agricultural companies grow

By Michelle Austein Brooks
Staff Writer

Novi Sad, Serbia — Biotrend Donato, a small family-owned company, has made a good business by producing prepackaged salads, dressings and vegetable-based sauces for sale in Serbia. Now it is ready to expand its export business.

Biotrend Donato is one of 25 Serbian companies preparing for the Anuga Food Fair in Cologne, Germany, a trade show that provides an opportunity for these businesses to establish new contacts and negotiate exports. The fair will be Biotrend Donato’s first appearance at an international trade show.

As part of its agribusiness project, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) helps small Serbian agricultural businesses like Biotrend Donato strengthen their technical capacity, marketing skills, efficiency and competitiveness. USAID aims to increase product sales and increase agricultural employment in Serbia, a nation with a long agricultural history. The project focuses on six subsectors: livestock, tree fruits, berry fruits, vegetables, mushrooms and herbs, and dairy.

Agriculture is key to the development of any economy, said USAID’s Louis Faoro, director of the project. But Serbia’s agriculture industry had been hampered by decades during which state-owned farms were inefficient and unproductive. In the 1990s, internal conflict and international economic sanctions meant that markets for Serbian products “essentially disappeared,” Faoro said. As a result, the technology used by farms and related businesses foundered.

In 1990, Llubica Stankov and her husband started Biotrend Donato by producing ketchup. As the only Serbian supplier of ketchup, the Stankovs’ product was in high demand, especially when sanctions kept all ketchup imports out of Serbia. But eventually competition did come, and the Stankovs — who enjoy running a smaller, manageable-sized company — decided to switch to making products that would be harder for larger, more industrialized companies to make.

Since USAID’s agribusiness project began in 2007, agricultural experts from the United States have helped train the Stankovs and other Serbs in new technical methods that increase production efficiency. The project also helps Serbian businesses market their products and themselves — skills that Llubica Stankov has gained and that have increased retail sales.

The project also administers a $3 million program that enables Serbian companies to apply for grants that will assist them with marketing, implementing technology or meeting international standards — three areas in which Serbian companies have reported they need the most help. Among those eligible for grants are secondary- and college-aged students interested in starting their own agricultural enterprises.

Many young Serbs growing up on farms do not realize that their farms are businesses, Faoro said. By working with students, Faoro hopes to create future entrepreneurs.

Biotrend Donato, with the help of the USAID project, has become more visible in the retail market and improved its reputation, Llubica Stankov said. Since her relationship began with the project a year and a half ago, Stankov has successfully marketed her products to Serbia’s largest grocery store chain. She has made new business connections by presenting at the Novi Sad agricultural fair, one of the largest in Europe. Biotrend Donato has increased its production by 30 percent and is looking for a larger facility.

With a grant from USAID, Stankov is working with a designer to create new product packaging and marketing materials and a Web site. While Serbs may be familiar with her product, Stankov said, she recognizes that it is time to make her packaging more appealing to consumers she wants to reach elsewhere in the world.

Through the agribusiness project, other business owners have learned to package and label products to appeal to European and other international buyers. “These are very sophisticated nuances, but they make a difference in terms of selling products,” Faoro said.

Increased business has helped Biotrend Donato continue to succeed during a global economic slowdown that has hampered other small Serbian businesses, Stankov said, adding that unlike many companies, she expects to be profitable this year.

USAID officials initially were concerned about challenges Serbian businesses would face trying to increase their exports during the global recession. But the crisis seems to have had little impact on the 22 businesses that attended the World Food Moscow fair in Moscow in September. Serbian food exporters contracted more than $8.5 million worth of sales there and are negotiating additional sales of goods worth more than $16 million.

The agribusiness project itself is learning. Regardless of the economy, “if you have a good product, you are going to find a buyer,” Faoro said. “If you make a good product even cheaper, you will have more buyers.”

http://www.america.gov/st/business-english/2009/September/20090930160446amskoorb0.7583887.html?CP.rss=true

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