How Serbian food conquers the world, one fair at a time: Gulfood 2022, Dubai (2) - The Middle East pays well for frozen fruit, juice products circulate the continents

Serbia is a world power when it comes to frozen fruit exports, comparable to Serbian success in basketball, perhaps even water polo - among European countries, only Poland is in our league - and that is what makes this game actually more similar to volleyball. For that reason, most of the exhibitors at the Serbian stand at the International Food Fair Gulfood in Dubai have been from this line of business. Fruit, even in its fresh state, is a significant trump card of our agricultural industry, and the global market is eager to welcome Serbian fruit products at the Middle East fair, including drinks. Although this refers mostly to juices, delegation from the Serbian food industry at the world exhibition EXPO 2020 Dubai also includes one brandy producer.

Why is Serbian frozen fruit looking for its place in this part of the world? Bosko Bondzulic, director of Master Fruits from Belgrade, provides the answer:

- The quantities we place on this market are not too big, but there is a significant difference in price compared to some other markets. This is a rapidly developing category here. We do a lot of business with Saudi Arabia - raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, pick mixes - and we also export to Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar.

The fair is an opportunity to take another step forward - perhaps small for the market, but quite big for a company from Serbia.



The products of the Belgrade company ITN, one of the largest exporters, present at fairs around the world together with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, are also on display nearby. Recently, they have acquired Budimka from Pozega, which also appeared at the Gulfood fair as a separate brand.

Another big company, Belgrade-based Mirax Agrar, also unveiled a frozen fruit program. The company BMN MALINAS from Pozega exhibited its products in Dubai for the second time.



Exporters of fresh fruit are also looking at the sand of the Middle East: the traditional market, the Russian steppe, is changing its mood. Under Western sanctions, Russian agricultural production has made advances on its own. It is now clear that there will be more sanctions. Just as water always finds its way - or otherwise becomes a stagnant pond - so must an export-oriented economy.

The family-owned Fruct Company from Udovic near Smederevo has been exporting fresh fruit to Russia since its founding in 2008. So far, the resourceful folks ftom Udovic have sold as many as 85% of their goods to the largest country in the world. However, they are also looking for new markets and are appearing at this and similar fairs, because, as owner and director Miroljub Jovanovic expalined, "Russia is looking for increasingly higher quality for increasingly lower prices."

- Appearance at the Gulfood fair for our company was an opportunity to present the fruit offer. We have established contacts with foreign partners from different countries, and we have already received several requests for cooperation from India, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Potential buyers are most interested in apples - says Jovanovic.

The company expects to export at least a fifth of its production to new markets in the coming period.

Fruct Company exports fresh fruits - apples, peaches, nectarines, blueberries. Apart from Russia, as Miroljub Jovanovic says, they are selling goods to Romania and our entire region.

"We hope to launch exports to the United Arab Emirates," he said. - They are looking for fresh fruit - they do not consume much frozen - and modern varieties, and the apples they demand are gala, granny smith, golden delicious, red delicious - and all of them exclusively premium quality. We process about 10,000 tons of apples a year. The capacity of the refrigerator is about 4,500 tons of apples. The export price of premium apples is around 65 euro cents, transport to the UAE is done by container, whereas to Russia it's done by truck.

Juice products - to Mongolia, via Germany

In many Russian supermarkets, a prominent place on the shelf is reserved for the juices made by the company Zdravo organic from Selenca, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The company also produces organic, but its primary focus are conventional juice products, because the quality of products and the method of production are the same, the only difference being that in organic production raw materials are 30-50 times more expensive. Hello organic exports about 70% of its total product range, an extremely good business scenario.



- Three years ago, when we participated in this fair for the first time, we did not have high expectations, but out of a total of fifty business contacts, we signed a contract with a company from the Philippines, and so about 5-6 containers of our juices go to that country. - Zdenko Kolar, commercial director, tells us.

Privredna komora Srbije

Master Fruits d.o.o. Beograd

ITN Group doo Beograd

Budimka doo Požega

Mirax Agrar d.o.o. Beograd

BMN MALINAS d.o.o.

Fruct Company d.o.o.

Zdravo Organic d.o.o. Selenča

Gulfood 2022

SCC

World Trade Centre Dubai

Bosko Bondzulic

Miroljub Jovanovic

Zdenko Kolar

Gulfood

frozen fruit

frozen fruit export

fresh fruit

fresh fruit export

juice products

juice products export

apple

apple export

gala

granny Smith

red delicious

golden delicious