Prof. Mirjana Milosevic, State Secretary of the Serbian Ministry of agriculture and Jim Stein Director of the Economic Growth Office, USAID, announced at Aero Club in Belgrade the winners of competition for the best youth agriculture-related business plan.

Nine young entrepreneurs from Vojvodina, Sabac, Topola and Vranje, who received the certificates on this occasion, will receive over $120,000 in order to enable them to start or improve their own small agribusinesses (mini-dairy, high-tunnel production of strawberries, production of mushrooms, fruit drying etc)

This competition was organized by the USAID Agribusiness project, for the second year in a row now. From April to September 2009, twenty three applications were submitted from young entrepreneurs throughout the country. They had good ideas on starting up or improving their own small businesses and received guidance and advice from the Agribusiness project team in order to prepare the best possible business plans.

After detailed process, nine ideas, developed through business plans, were selected as the best ones. Their authors will receive in total $121,861 to bring to fruition the winning plans.

A new round of the business plan competition was also announced today at Aero Club. The goal of this competition is to stimulate, inform and motivate young people to get personally involved in agribusiness. Through this activity and other similar activities focused on youth, USAID is determined to support the creation of a new class of young agricultural entrepreneurs, which in turn would lead to new jobs and improve the livelihoods of local communities throughout Serbia.

The announced winners are:

1. David Cvetanovic (age 23) - This young agriculture engineer from the village of Bukovac near Sombor (Vojvodina) plans to open a mini dairy, primarily for production of semi-hard cheeses.
2. Djurdjinka Berberski (age 22) - Agriculture Faculty student and farmer from Zrenjanin (Vojvodina) owns her own farm. She wants to improve the milk production and to increase profit rate by selling her products directly to the market via milk machines, instead of selling raw milk to big dairies.
3. Marko Manojlovic (age 22) - student and farmer from Srpska Crnja (Vojvodina), will improve the milk quality by the procurement of modern equipment.
4. Marko Vasic (age 20) - farmer from the village Lipolist, near Sabac plans to set up a mini drying facility, primarily for fruit drying.
5. Mitic Nikola (age 20) - young farmer from the village Priboj Vranjski, near Vranje (south Serbia) plans to improve his milk production by acquiring new heads and adequate machinery.
6. Vladimir Ivanovic (age 20) - student from the village Sutci near Ljig (Central Serbia), already has 4 years old blueberry plant. His Business Plan envisages improvement of the quality of his blueberries by introducing high quality irrigation system and adequate equipment to protect his crops from hail.
7. Vladan Radojevic (age 26) - Agriculture Faculty student from the village Natalinci near Topola (Central Serbia) is planning to set up a high-tunnel production of strawberries.
8. Predrag Nesovic (age 26) - Agriculture Faculty student from Kula (Vojvodina) wants to start a Shiitake mushroom production.
9. Nikola Srdanov (age 26) - young entrepreneur from Novi Sad (Vojvodina) together with Milivoj Radojcin, assistant at the Agriculture Faculty of Novi Sad, plans to produce medical herbs, with emphasis primarily on marigold, then on chamomile and mint. Processing will include the production of ethereal oils.