Agricultural Cooperative Loznati, Croatia

In Loznati, on the beautiful Croatian island Cres, until about sixty years ago, there was a dairy that produced sheep cheese. Since then, there has been no real production of homemade cheese and there was a danger that the production of traditional sheep cheese would completely die out.

The Žic brothers together with the Kučica brothers founded the Loznati Agricultural Cooperative ten years ago. After stabilizing the herd with about 350 sheep, they decided to build a dairy on the site where it once existed. The investment in the production of a modern dairy was also partially covered by the European fund for the rural development program. New dairy is completely equipped with Plevnik devices: cheese kettle SKH 500 HW Professional with controller MC 500 R, horizontal pneumatical press, cheese table with dividing plate SDM 2010, draining cheese table SOM 159, cheese tables SM 147 and 97, stable cooling tank HNP 500, ice bank SHL and other complementary equipment. Bruno Žic said:

“We are extremely satisfied with the equipment we bought from Plevnik. Thanks to the top quality of milk and top equipment, we get exceptionally good results … we are especially pleased with the horizontal press PPS-H. We get an excellent product with the help of manual three-stage pressure regulation. Our customers confirm the quality of our products. Company Plevnik is very professional.  Every little problem we had, was resolved quickly with a professional level.  We could not choose a better partner for equipping our dairy.”

In addition to cheese, they also started producing cottage cheese and yogurt. A part of the products is sold in a dairy, another part in their own inn Bukaleta and a part in local stores and even to the 5-star Bellevue Hotel. Even the Croatian president, Zoran Milanović visited the new dairy in 2021.

The dairy and the whole concept of sheep farming can be a model and encouragement to other islanders to take the activities that once fed entire generations as a business opportunity. Mr. Bruno Žic explained:

»It’s a lot of work with taking care of sheep, it’s hard work, but I like it. I’m happy when I’m taking care of sheep and I’m free in nature, working in fresh air and at the and I earn from it. There is a lot of pasture land on the island and once there were many sheep on the island.«