Macvan, the surname that was once on Serbia’s national basketball team captain's jersey, is now the brand name of new berry farms. The Olympic silver medallist and captain of Serbia’s national basketball team, Milan Macvan retired from the sport to take up hazelnut, raspberry, pear and cherry farming.
Milan Macvan
The 1.99 meter tall producer can now stand and guard over his 30 hectares of hazelnuts, 18 ha of pears, 6,5 ha of raspberry’s, 1 hectare of newly developed cherry orchards and 30 ha of field crops.
“Upon retirement I decided to take up farming along with my family. After the end of my basketball career, I decided to retire from the sport and focus my time and energy on fruit growing and farming. The Macvan agricultural farm was officially established in 2020, however a couple years earlier, we started growing hazelnuts on several smaller areas,” explains Macvan.
The Macvan farm is situated in the region of Pocerina, the area in the Western part of Serbia. He says the Pocerina region has excellent climatic conditions for growing fruit both due to the altitude and due to the good drainage of the land. The farm holds GlobalGap and Grasp standards for its raspberry production. Macvan established a partnership with the Swiss company Lukowa Food, with offices in Belgrade, who purchase their raspberries for export.
Macvan Fruit Farm was started by Milan Macvan, Serbia’s former national basketball captain. He is with colleague Natalija Jakovijevic.
He draws on his years of professional basketball playing by seeing the 10 members of staff on the farm as a team who work towards a common goal. “The goal of the Macvan’s farm is to grow and develop together with its employees and to achieve stability and integrity in the world of fruit growing and farming in Serbia. Team work, agreements, family atmosphere and a sense of belonging is what is needed for successful work, and we have managed to create such an atmosphere with our employees. I believe that human capital can be best used through good communication and mutual trust and learning.”
Macvan Fruit Farms grows 5.5 ha of the club variety of raspberry Enrosadire, a certified Italian seedlings from local authorized nurseries. “The production and cultivation of hazelnuts on our agricultural farm has taken precedence both in terms of hectares and in terms of the original making of plantations. A few years ago, the first hazelnut plantation was created, more precisely in 2017, after that we expanded the plantations, where we currently have about 30ha of different varieties. Pear planting took place in November 2020, when we raised the plantation of The Williams’ bon chrétien pear, commonly called the Williams pear, or the Bartlett pear and pear Carmen. The cherry is the first to bear fruit and thus makes it popular because it provides the earliest fruit income. Cherry is very grateful because it grows on almost all lands. There are two varieties of cherries Burlat and Reggina on our plantation,” explains Macvan.
Macvan is focused on building his ‘team’ of world class fruit by expanding the cherry orchards to reach more markets in the Balkan region and those in Europe.
For more information:
Milan Macvan
Macvan Fruit Farms
Tel: +38 164 207 0491
Email: [email protected]
www.macvan.rs