EKO BIO GEN d.o.o. Grude

Grude, Bosnie-Herzégovine

An Overview Of Our Solution

EKO BIO GEN d.o.o. Grude exclusively deals with the growing and cultivation of Helichrysum italicum and production of Helichrysum italicum essential oil and hydrolat. EKO BIO GEN’s plantation has an area of nearly 37 ha and the mission is to become the reliable regional leader in production of quality Helichrysum italicum essential oil and hydrolat. Its plantations are the areas that have been the natural habitat of wild Helichrysum italicum plants. The full process of farming, cultivation and production is monitored by ECOCERT SA and organic certificates for EU and USA market also a member of international association IFEAT. We are making great efforts to be absolutely competitive in terms of environmental protection. We grow medicinal and aromatic plants in the area of connecting of Mediterranean and mountain continental climate in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Who is this solution impacting?

Community Type

Suburban

Organization type

Coopérative

Ecosystem (select all that apply)

Urban/Built Environment

Population impacted

8 000

Size of agricultural area

36,36

Production quantity

100 kilos

People employed

6 people

Describe your solution

We possess great experience in many agricultural projects and activities and also in our business, here are some references: On annual base we generate 450,000 chickens We generate 150,000 poults (turkeys) and we are only distributor of little poults(turkeys) in BIH. We own plantations which have 5,500 apple seedlings and on annual base it produce 7500 kg of apples. Also we produce 15,000 liters of natural squeezed apple juice We manage to fix many problems related to the technological approach to production and in treatment of our final and half-final products by using our own approach, machines and also using mechanical, technological and technical, electro mechanical automated and half automated solutions. All of the above had resulted in creating our own production line for bio-diesel, produced from wasted edible oil. (which we collect from almost all of the large restaurants in BiH) Once again, I would like to emphasize, that bio-diesel is the only kind of fuel we use for our vehicles, agricultural mechanization and farm machinery used in our plantations. Thanks to the steady technological innovations, we also managed to build instalations for industrial manafacturing and packaging organic apple juice. Company owner's long term experience in managing agricultural buisness has undoubtedly contributed to the stronger profiling of BIO EKO GEN as a company that provides whole business solutions , with emphasis on individual approach to customers 'needs and demands.

Describe your implementation

Using our own harvester would make the harvesting process on our lands much faster when compared to manual harvesting method used right now. It would result in planting even more species such as laurel, immortelle, wormwood, sage, etc. These are terrains which were natural habitat for a vast number of other wild species of medical and aromatic herbs and those terrains have they own unique particularities and their harvesting requires a special and innovative technological solution in our own arrangement since it is not possible to perform the harvest with an ordinary combine. - Specific activities and/or specifically what your solution does to address the identified problems above in the Context Analysis section - How you ensured your solution was adopted and promoted change in human activities - Enabling conditions - Key success factors - Any obstacles and how you overcame them

External connections

Managing water resources and fishing is indirectly related to our business, and we have made great efforts to protect water sources near our plantations. In the near future, one of our main goals is irrigation of our plantations using the rainwater that will be stored in large containers located on our estate. Our policy is to preserve drinking water supplies and use the rainwater instead. Moreover, rainwater is more suitable for watering the plants because of its chemical structure and does not contain dissolved minerals which indeed can be harmful for plants. By Since the beginning of our business journey we are focused on creating sustainable jobs for young people in our area. Unfortunately, the overall bad economic situation causes young people to move abroad in search of abetter future.

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

We are oriented to organic production, at the moment we are growing Helichrysum italicum, we intend to expand to other plants, in which we have interest and demand from our clients. We are doing this because of two reasons: first is that our clients are in demand for organic products and second is in that we wish to protect environment and put a effort for a higher level of quality of our products that are used in nutrition, personal hygiene, aromatherapy etc. We wish to note that these products are considerably more expensive in the market than those of non-certified and we anticipate that in the future this difference will be even greater.

Describe the context in which you are operating

EKO BIO GEN d.o.o Grude has two parcels in its possesion:
1. parcel - Mostarska Vrata, Ljubuški, parcel includs 127.500 m2,
2. parcel - Cerno, Ljubuški, parcel includs 236.124 m2.
Next spring, we plan to prepare fields and plant about 5000 m2 of other agricultural sorts, such as salvia, heather, absinthe and savory. Experimental samples will show whether the soil and particular microclimatic conditions are suitable for that kind of medical herbs. The intention of spring planting is to determine whether chosen sorts are rightful according to demand and characteristics of oil that are wanted from potential customers. If spring planting goes as well, as we expect it, during fall months we shall plant additional 5 ha of our plantations with other medical herbs. By increasing manufacture and revenues , we will be upgrading our business on both domestic and international market, and the most important, of course, we will be able to offer new jobs and higher salaries to our employees.

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

Cultivating immortelle and producing its derivates, which has been our main focus, we shall, in the springtime, prepare our land and cultivate other plants, typical for our climate. Mostly bushy and half - bushy wild growing plants like sage heather and wormwood which are well known for their healing properties and for their usage in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry. Though in the market there is a huge rabidity over these plants, their cultivation is still wrongfully neglected in Herzegovina. Starting this business, we believe that we will make an example for others to make investments and start cultivating plants and, ergo, use benefits mother nature has given to us. It’s extremely important to create and maintain biodiversity, considering the rapid, 1000 up to 10 000 times faster, downfall in the number of the organic species. Plantation cultivation of these herbs is keeping them safe from extinction, taking into consideration its excessive, illegal and inexpert gathering.

Language(s)

Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian.

Water

As we’ve already said, our main focus is on watering plants using rainwater. That kind of irrigation is beyond doubt better for environment and also better for plants. The great advantage of this system is unlimited capacity of water. Furthermore, installations, machines and apparatus for the collection, purification, storage of rainwater have low maintance coast and structural parts therefor are easy to maintain.

Food Security/Nutrition

When it comes to food production, our company, as earlier mentioned, is engaged with organic production and distribution of poultry (chickens and turkeys). Benefits of organic food production are globally known, and the primary benefit of consuming organic food is that it reduces the risk of salmonella and other bacterial infections.Meat from natural poultry breeding has lower calorie values, its taste and smell is more intense and it is better for further processing and meal preparing.

Economic/Sustainable Development

Sustainable development in the area of cultivation of medial herbs in B&H, estimates and calculations done on the example of 5 hectares, where medicinal and aromatic herbs were cultivated. Data by Chamber of Foreign Trade of B&H, in 2010 had exported 3.406.573 kg of medical herbs and forest fruits, worth of 26.277.602 KM. B&H has a vast number of advantages taking into account favorable climate conditions, natural resources and a long tradition of gathering medical and aromatic herbs.

Climate

Air pollution, contamination and depletion of water resources and dealing with climate change are the main environmental issues today. The atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has increased markedly because of increased use of fossil fuels. That was one of the reasons why we’ve decided to use bio-diesel instead. Transportation of biodiesel is not as dangerous as it is for example transportation of oil or natural gas. Biodiesel is rapidly biodegradable and completely non-toxic.

Sustainability

The sustainability is based on the fact that the technologically innovative solution of this kind will result in a large costs reduction, on the worker/hour basis.

Return on investment

According to the cost-benefit analysis, investments will pay off in the next three years. Investment costs are 31000$. Half of that amount goes to workers wages and the other half is used for providing necessary materials.

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How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

Replicating this undertaking It would be more simple and cheaper in every interaction and that is because when the number of products increases, the price of each component i.e. the whole product as such would be reducing itself. Funding in amount of 31 000$, key partners are the companies that shall provide solution for this innovative technical and technological solution.In cost of funding is also included 4 workshops, in which would participate 110 farmers in education of organic production.

Overview