THRACIA IKE - SERBEST AGRIFEED LTD

Two Start-ups, one from Greece and one from Bulgaria, have decided to combine their ideas, plans, innovation capacity and abilities and work together to the common interest and progress within the context of the cooperation program “INTERREG V-A Greece – Bulgaria 2014-2020”.
The Greek partner, THRACIA IKE, an olive oil mill enterprise that has started its activities during 2018 in the Industrial Area of Komotini by establishing a small line and thus is in business for almost one year, plans to expand considerably its production ability and improve the quality of the oil at the highest possible level by replacing the existing line with a high capacity brand-new one of two-stages. This will foster new chances for the company and secure its position in the markets of the western Europe where there live significant populations of Mediterranean origin and consume imported olive oil; preferably of high standards. At the same time THRACIA IKE is seeking a way to exploit the pomace; a byproduct of the olives’ processing that is difficult to be disposed-of and currently constitutes a headache for modern (two-stages) mills. The problem will be tackled productively through the application of a groundbreaking method that they will exercise jointly with their cross-border partner.
The Bulgarian partner, a progressive farmer who currently cultivates about 500 hectares of cereals and other agricultural products in Silen of Haskovo region, is pursuing to add more value to his primary production by processing it and turning them to animal feed of various types. A market research that covers the cross-border area in which the two businesses are activated, has proven the lack of significant animal feed producers, while at the same time the demand from livestock breeders, poultry and fish farms and other consumers is imperative; currently it is covered by imports from other areas of the two countries as well as from third -non EU- countries. To the above end a new company that will be activated in the secondary sector was recently founded; this is SERBEST AGRIFEED Ltd that will establish a brand new factory in existing property at Silen. The installation of state-ofthe- art production lines as well as the procurement of modern supportive equipment and the application of Food Safety Management Systems according to ISO 22000/2018 will improve their position in the respective markets.
In addition, the two enterprises will develop a multiple business relationship spanning in research and development (R&D), reprocessing and trading. More specifically, the aforementioned pomace will be transferred to the Bulgarian factory where it will enter in the production process as an ingredient of the animal feeds. R&D actions will run in parallel for its better adaptation as a raw material; to this end, suitable programs of the EU and the two Member States will be exploited. Both partners will undertake to market each other's products in their countries; in addition the two partners will promote their produces in both regions and furthermore in other EU Member States. The overall marketing will be based on the development of recognizable brands and supported by electronic and conventional means (web-portal, brochures, etc).