Modern European enterprise processes vegetables in village of Dolna Dikanya

The only vegetable processing plant of its kind in Southeast Europe is located in the village of Dolna Dikanya, Radomir Municipality and is one of the largest projects supported by the National Guarantee Fund. The company is truly European in both design and implementation. Its main object is to process raw vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, and pack them in different sizes and types of packaging.
Georgi Milev, owner of the company, says that he started this project in order to be competitive.

"We are producers of potatoes and other vegetables. I realized that if you do not add a little added value, our potatoes are not competitive, because the potatoes from Germany, Poland, France are much cheaper. The products that will come out of this plant are processed so that they are offered fresh to consumers, not frozen, not blanched, not canned, in short in a form preserving all the useful ingredients in them.
The project investment is about BGN 8 million, 50% is co-financed by State Fund Agriculture. The maximum guarantee of BGN 3 million has been granted by NGF for the financing.

The company is equipped with additional environmental-friendly facilities: a photovoltaic park on the roof produces electricity for its own needs and a treatment plant, since there is no sewerage network in the area. The biological waste from the production process is processed and methane gas is obtained, which reduces the production costs of the plant. 

"Our next step is to expand the storage facilities so that we can buy and process vegetables from other producers. With such a project, one wouldn’t do without the guarantee fund, they must have an awful lot of money to be able to make such an investment without the support of the fund," Georgi Milev, manager of the company, said.