Gradacac “Plum Faur” kicked off Wednesday for the 45th time in this town, hosting 320 exhibitors from the country and the region. Opening the fair, High Representative to Bosnia Valentin Inzko said that for the next couple of days, Gradacac will be the capital of Bosnia.

“Gradacac, first mentioned in 1302, is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina today, and the capital of the region, even though this town lives for its food industry and plums during the entire year. The other reason why this is the regional capital is the fact that many successful people from the field of textile, chemical, food and mechanical industry come from this town,” said Inzko whose duty is to oversee the civilian implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia (1992-1995).

This year’s novelty is the beekeeping fair with international participants, during which scientific papers on beekeeping will be presented.

“The International Agriculture and Food Industry Fair in Gradacac is a perfect way to stress the significance of agriculture for our economy,” Fair Manager Hasim Sabanovic said.

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity Prime Minister Fadil Novalic said that the Gradacac Fair has evolved from a simple plum fair into an international fair of agriculture, over the course of 50 years.

“The FBiH Government is making maximum efforts for the development of this sector and it invested some BAM 70 million (around EUR 35 million) annually in the form of grant funds, which may seem like a small sum but when you take into perspective that we’ve been doing this for over 20 years, you get a sum of over BAM 1 billion (around EUR 500 million),” Novalic pointed out.

The fair lasts from August 29 to September 1.  

(EUR 1 = BAN 1.95583)