Victoria Group's participation on Danube Soya Association Info Day

Novi Sad, 22 February 2013 – Victoria Group has participated in the Danube Soya Association Info Day, organised by the Novi Sad Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops and the organisation Danube Soya. The Danube Soya Association was founded as an independent, international and non-profit organisation headquartered in Vienna, and its primary goal is to promote non-GMO soybean in the Danube Region countries, among which Serbia, with its 170,000 hectares of land on which non-GMO soybean is grown, certainly takes central place.

In his introductory speech, Institute Director Dr Miroslav Malešević underscored the importance of signing a declaration such as this for everyone involved in agriculture, the city of Novi Sad itself and the manufacturing industry, while Danube Soya Association President Matthias Krön emphasised Serbia’s central role in implementing this project, the significance of the fact that there are companies such as Victoria Group that are supporting and actively participating in the non-GMO soybean promotion project, as well as the multiple benefits that Serbian farmers will enjoy in the years ahead.

In the expert part of the conference, a representative of Victoria Group held a presentation for those present, including around 100 farmers who grow soybean, about the importance of applying the Declaration and the comparative advantages gained by our country from growing exclusively non-GMO soybean.

Furthermore, back in September 2012, Victoria Group took part in a Danube Soya Association seminar at which experts from the entire region presented the capacities for growing and processing non-GMO soybean in Serbia, with the achieved market opportunities in the European Union. Participants were also familiarised with the production capacities and results of the company Sojaprotein, a Victoria Group member.

Sojaprotein is a unique factory complex in Europe for processing exclusively non-genetically modified (non-GMO) soybean, of strictly controlled origin and quality. Thanks to this comparative advantage, reflected in the non-GMO soybean products, this company has secured international trading in 36 markets - from European Union, the Russian Federation and CEFTA and EFTA members to the countries of the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa, as well as Turkey. Recent investment in a traditional soy protein concentrate (TSCP) production plant, worth EUR30 million, will provide the Sojaprotein factory, which has an annual production capacity of 250,000 tonnes, with an export potential of 80% of total output.

The conference was attended by Serbian Minister of Education and Science Žarko Obradović, Mayor of Novi Sad Miloš Vučević, Danube Soya President Matthias Krön from Vienna, Austrian Ministry of Agriculture Attaché Dr Christian Brawenz, Rudolf Bühler, the president of an association of 1,400 German farmers, as well as Plant Protection Administration Director Dr Jan Boćanski, the president of the 100 P Plus Farmers' Association Voja Malešev, and Victoria Group Representative Natalija Kurjak.