Winners of the 6th cycle of the Intesa Farmer competition announced

Banca Intesa announced the winners of the competition for the most successful agricultural producers Intesa Farmer 2018, who were awarded in three categories: Intesa Farmer of the Year, Intesa Farmer Innovator and Intesa Young Farmer.

This year’s Intesa Farmer title was awarded to Pavle Tatić from Turija near Srbobran, along with a cash prize of RSD 1,200,000, while Jeno Kaposta from Palić near Subotica was declared Intesa Farmer Innovator, and received a RSD 600,000 prize. Vladimir Mitrović from Pepeljevac near Lajkovac was declared as Intesa Young Farmer and went back to his farm with a RSD 600,000 incentive to continue his excellent results and in that way send a message that young people can also manage an agricultural business well.

More than 450 farmers applied for the sixth cycle of the Intesa Farmer competition. The winner of the Intesa Farmer of the Year category was based on annual results of their agricultural production, including members of their entire family, in which every is equally responsible for the accomplished results, as well as based on investments carried out, ownership of own facilities for storage, mechanization, arable land, expansion of their businesses into the field of rural tourism, or other types. The Intesa Farmer Innovator was selected based on accomplished annual results, use of innovative solutions in production and commerce, application of online sales of own products, use of modern technologies in the production process, as well as processing and marketing of innovative products in the domestic market. The Intesa Young Farmer needs to be below 40 years of age, and to be an independent head of the agricultural business for at least three years, and the annual results were also taken into consideration.

The best farmers were selected by an expert jury comprised of Maja Andonov, Head of Small Business Department at Banca Intesa, Đorđe Radulović, Head of Banca Intesa Office for Managing Sales to Registered Farming Households, Vojislav Živanović, Sponsorship, Donations, and Events Manager at Banca Intesa, Milan Prostran, agro-economic analyst and Goran Đaković, editor-in-chief of Agrobiznis magazine.

Since 2008, when it launched its agribusiness operations, Banca Intesa provided a total of EUR 304 million in loans to support registered agricultural businesses, and in 2018, it increased its market share in the agribusiness segment to as high as 14.3%.