Victoria Logistic, a member of the Victoria Group, organises the primary production of oilseeds and grains, distribution of raw materials, trade, transport and storage of agricultural commodities. With 500,000 tonnes per annum, it is the market leader in the purchase of oilseeds and the link between agricultural producers and processors
The company has 100 pass-through buying stations for each crop with a daily reception capacity of more than 10,000 tonnes.
The company has a total warehouse capacity of 450,000 tonnes of mercantile grains and fertilizer storage space for 100,000 tonnes. The total transport volume exceeds 1,000,000 tonnes per year. In these processes, the logistics, storage and quality control sectors are responsible for preserving the quality and quantity of goods, says Mladen Jovanović, General Manager of Victoria Logistic.
How would you describe your cooperation with cooperatives?
– Given the number of goods purchased every year, it is very successful. It must first of all be a two-way cooperation that assumes support, assistance and mutual understanding. We provide our business partners with all the necessary raw materials – fertilisers, seeds, plant protection products.
Our experts also provide support not only in the fields but also throughout the whole business cycle. And then we buy the goods produced by cooperatives and farmers we work with. We also provide them with logistics services during purchase, assuring timely transport, storage and inspection of goods.
Our cooperation has to be mutually satisfying and a good example of this is the certification of goods, which we carry out together with our partners so that we together become more competitive in ever more demanding markets.
Why did you introduce forward purchase of soybean and sunflower in 2016?
– We wanted to be able to trade with our partners during the whole year, not only in the campaign or purchase time that is risky for both parties. This is why we introduced forward purchase by which we lower the risk.
We provide our business partners with all the necessary raw materials – fertilisers, seeds, plant protection products. Our experts also provide support not only in the fields, but also throughout the whole business cycle
How did your partners react to the new way of purchasing and in general, what does it mean?
– Almost all business partners accepted this way of trading in some areas of cooperation. At the very beginning, we presented, explained and gave them a choice of one of three models of purchase. In short, the forward purchase model allows our partners to monitor on daily basis the prices we publish and to trade with us, as their major customers, every day of the year at the prices they accept as good or reject and wait for different ones.
The second model is daily pricing during the purchase campaign, which assumes that every working day at 10 a.m. the current market price for soybeans and sunflower is established, which is defined according to the prices on relevant world markets and in the region and is valid until 3 p.m. that day.
The third and the most similar model of purchase to the old one assumes that when receiving the oilseeds at the start of the purchase a provisional price is determined, and at the end of the purchase, the final market price is defined.
Farmers in the EU and the region also use this principle to manage their products in the least risky way, selling a third of their products in the forward purchase, a third at the harvest based on the prices that are published daily, and a third when market prices rise.
What are your plans for next year?
– The plan is to purchase 500,000 tonnes of oilseeds and to increase cooperation with partners on grains. We will continue promoting the services of the AgroPort logistics centre in Bačka Palanka, which brings together storage, packaging and port services for commercial goods and fertilizers under one roof.