SWG Agro-food

Presentation of region and cluster-activities

PP6 – Maribor development Agency

Sofia, November 25th, 2010

Podravje region:

• between the Austrian border in the north and the Croatian border in the south-east

• area of 2.170 km² (10.7% of the national territory)

• 320.100 inhabitants (16.1% of the national population)

Agriculture in Slovenia• state of Slovenia: 20.000 km2,

• 0,12 ha fields per capita (the smallest field area per capita in Europe) ,

• favourable climate and geographical position,

• high fragmentation of landed properties (average farm size: 3,2 ha),

• 90% of agricultural ground is privately owned,

• share of companies in gross value of agricultural production is still very important

Agriculture in Podravje Region

• the highest share of utilised agricultural area in Slovenia (82,000 hectares)

• the leading region in terms of the number of agricultural holdings.

• cereals in more than half of fields

• stockbreeding (cattle farming, pig production, poultry breeding, small cattle breeding - sheep, goats)

• viticulture and fruit-growing

12

1,1

10,2

25

0,9

21

14,5 15,3

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

field crops farms horticulture permanent crops grazing livestock pigs and poultry mixed cropping mixed livestock production

mixed crops -livestock

production

Agricultural holdings by tape of farming in Podravje region (%) (year 2007)

Institutions in Podravje region:

• Agriculture and Forestry Institute Maribor

• University of Maribor – Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science

• Food Technology School of Maribor – Vocational College

Larger enterprises in Podravje region:

• Perutnina Ptuj (producer of poultry meat and products)

• Vinag (fruit cultivation and wine production)

• Kosaki (producer of meat and meat products)

• Gea (oil producer: pumpkin seed oil, sunflower, olive,

rapeseed, soybean, corn germ oil, cold pressed and virgin oils) • PC Zito Intes (milling and pasta industry) • Ljubljanske mlekarne d.d. – processing plant in

Maribor (producer of milk and milk products)• Slosad - processing plant of Eta (fruit and

vegetable processing)

Cluster potential in the region

• no official cluster in the area of agro food sector,• BUT a potential for its creation is provided: Regional

cluster development strategy (2008),• several SMEs, R&D institutions, University,…• ADC project activities to be used as preparatory activity

for creation of cluster / network

Structure of regional partners - RFG

• Maribor Development Agency, • Regional Chamber of commerce and industry, • Regional Chamber of Craft, • Agency for International Marketing (external expert), • EEN network on national level

Above mentioned partnership represents the core RFG

Group which will be enlarged with SME representatives.

Expectations of regional partners & SMEs

• clear definition what support will be offered by partner regions to participating clusters and SMEs,

• definition of subsectors to be agreed in 2010, • follow-up activities and individual partner search

services to be offered,• partners (and clusters) should agree what support &

cooperation can be expected after 2011

Experience in similar activities

• MDA is coordinator of internationalisation activities of the Slovenian EEN network,

• organisation or participation at min. 6 PEV events per year (plus animation of SMEs for events),

• coordinator of clustering activities in the Podravje region