CORPORATE PREDRAG NIKČEVIĆ, General partner and co-owner
Hand Made Premium Quality Goat Cheese - Our Time Has Yet To Come
It’s a great shame that in our country there is no culture or tradition of consuming goat’s milk and products made from goat's milk, perhaps that’s why the total share of goat’s milk in Serbia is at a negligible level compared to Europe
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y sheer coincidence, and led by health reasons, Mr Predrag Nikčević Our goat’s milk products are in the higher price range, which is perhaps the reason why there are fewer consumers in Serbia for whom that range is accesdecided to invest in a goat farm and dairy. Within the framework of sible, but then we are increasingly recognised as a brand on foreign markets. company Beocapra, the brand KOZARI (Goat Keepers) has been developing successfully for six years and attracting more customers on a Goat whey, which is a by-product in the process of making cheese, is, accorddaily basis, but the greater concern of the state would be more than welcome, ing to our interlocutor, the company’s best-selling product, and is also recogin the form of subsidies that would significantly improve production, as is the nised by consumers as a product that is excellent for consumption by people practice in developed European countries. who have a problem with excess body fat. Serbia is not really a country that helps ag“We began by first purchasing a milking ricultural producers, while another wall is repherd of 180 Saanen goats from Upper Austria and buying land, but prior to that we resented by chain stores, which means that for read all the relevant literature we could find small producers like us the all kind of costs are and by 2009 we’d rounded off the entire proexceptionally high. There are also expensive analcess with infrastructure. Our initial idea was yses of quality, but also unfair competition, parto sell goat’s milk, but when we discovered ticularly linked to the sale of products without that there was only one major purchaser of any kind of evidence of origin or confirmation of the health and safety of foodstuffs. In order for goat’s milk and that existing dairies don’t us to overcome these problems, we opted for exgenerally have a goat programme, we opted port, which also had really high costs. However, it for the second stage and created a dairy in Soft-ripened double cream goat cheese in chestnut leaves is slowly paying off – we now export to the mar2010,” says Predrag Nikčević, General partner and co-owner of Beocapra, speaking to CorD. kets of the EU and Russia; we are striving to penetrate the countries of the MidWe also opted for a smaller series and packages of lower weight, in order dle and Far East, while we are also gradually penetrating the American market. to be competitive on European markets, with a lot of manual work, but in acMarkets mature slowly, but as the trend of healthy nutrition is spreading cordance with world standards for premium quality production. Beocapra has across the planet, I think our time has yet to come. ■ introduced ISO 9001:2008, HACCP, the ISO FSSC 22000 standard, a HALAL certificate, as well as all relevant health certificates on food safety. The comIn Serbia, subsidies are seven dinars per litre of milk, pany also possesses permits enabling it to sell its products on the markets of whether cow’s or goat’s, even though cows provide the EU and the Russian Federation, which are possessed by a very small numseven times more milk than goats, which should be ber of dairies in Serbia.
Our products: - Goat Milk - Goat Whey - Goat Yogurt - Semi-hard full fat goat cheese with natural liquid smoke flavour
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WINE
& BRANDY
- Semi-hard full fat goat cheese in extra virgin olive oil - Soft ripened double cream in oak ash - Soft ripened double cream in oak bark and ash
separated, but subsidies should also be introduced according to home head. Premiums are also much lower than in all of the countries of the region, and are particularly low compared to EU countries.The state could establish a distribution centre for small dairies and assist in export logistics