left to right: Pavle Basic - Vršački Vinogradi, Dusan Mojsilovic - Agromarket Vineyard, Dragan Lukac - President, Regional Chamber of Commerce of Novi Sad, Mirjana Samardzija – President of Serbian Unity Congress, Ljubisa Dimitrijević State Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Serbia, Philippe Chabot – US Dept of Agriculture, Bozidar Aleksandrović - Wine Cellar Aleksandrović, Jim Collins – Chief Consultant of Assembly Committe on Agriculture
By bringing together representatives of the Serb agro-business community with corresponding representatives in California’s renown NAPA Valley the Serbian Unity Congress objective was to launch and facilitate business and academic cooperation by both sides toward future possible arrangements such as research, study/training exchanges, strategic alliances, etc.
Bridging The Serbian Unity Congress Belgrade Office presented the idea to the US Embassy. The support of the Agricultural attaché resulted in the adoption of the proposal by the US Department of Agriculture, USDA. They contracted University of California at Davis to organize a full day visit to Napa. Mr. Philippe Chabot, the USDA representative responsible for this event flew to San Francisco to work with the delegations during this convention program.
Dragan Lukac, Ljubisa Dimitrijevic in the Napa Winery
Facilitating This program also received the interest and support of Serbia’s government. State Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Serbia Mr. Ljubisa Dimitrijevic attended all events. Also participating were many business representatives including Novi Sad Chamber of Commerce President Dragan Lukac. See the complete delegate list (PDF).
3-Day Program On October 25th a smaller delegation accompanied by Mr. Chabot and Mirjana Samardzija to meetings with the government of California in Sacramento. The group met with the Trade Director of California Mr. Robert C. Tse and had a separate meeting with the legislative side of California’s government, the California Assembly Committee on Agriculture, with Chief Consultant, Mr. Jim Collin.
left to right: Robert Tse, California Trade Director, Jonnalee Henderson – Policy Analyst, Phillipe Chabot – USDA, Dusan Mojsilović -- Agromarket Vineyard, Gordan Basic - Fruškogorski Vinogradi, Pavle Basić -- Vršački Vinogradi, Mirjana Samardzija, Ljubisa Dimitrijevic – State Secretary for Serbia’s Ministry of Agriculture
Next Steps Started On October 26th UC Davis joined the full group at the Parc55 Hotel where after an orientation meeting they transported them to Napa Valley. That day the participants met with managements of three wineries, saw an agrotourism center, Copia, and received an expert presentation on the economics and policy development for wine industry regions.
The event was wrapped up on Saturday morning October 27th at the convention. Two additional representatives came from Davis to meet with the wine study group for this session. Mr Chabot is going to Serbia to meet with the appropriate parties and discussions have already begun on cooperation arrangements between UC Davis and the universities of Belgrade, Novi Sad and Zemun.
