Ivanka Milenkovic, general manager at EKO fungi- I do not quite fit into business woman pattern

(Ivanka Milenkovic)

She does not regret for quitting her secure job in the Netherlands to come to work in Serbia. She spent her working life in Padinska skela studying edible fungi cultivation. She was at first a part of a big system and later became her own boss. She developed her own fungi production thanks to persistence which she believes is essential for everything we do.

She grew up in a civil family which appreciated order and work first of all so the General Manager of EKO fungi, Ivanka Milenkovic, considers education very important, not referring to it as a pure knowledge but as a number of nice manners, width and culture acquired through education.

She opted for biology studies in the times when her generation mostly went in for medicine. Professor of Krusevac-based grammar school, popular Zota, developed love for this natural science as far as she is concerned. Apart from that, she wanted to discover super secrets of genetics not guessing how complicated everything is.

She graduated from the Faculty of Biology in Belgrade in late eighties but still maintains strong connections with the University. The PKB Institute, Agroekeonomik, used to employ at that time a large number of young graduates. Although she was not fascinated with the stay in Belgrade, six months after she graduated, she started acquiring experience in a research institution in Padinska skela.

At that time, Agroekonomik started developing the edible fungi cultivation program and production of mycelium so as the only biologist among the agricultural engineers, she got the job.

Thanks to the field she was studying, she attended congresses and fairs Europe-wide ant thus found at one of those meetings a place to develop. She spent two years at the Mushroom experimental station in the Netherlands. She worked with top experts, fished her master’s degree, got the job but when in people started leaving Serbia in early nineties, she decided to come back.

- I spent the darkest times of ’91 and ’92 in the Netherlands. My mother writes a letter saying she is worried about me because they like hate us there while a cultural-artistic society is organizing a celebration of the orthodox Christmas because I am the only one from Serbia. My decision to come back surprised many people, both here and there. If I had kids, I might think of stay. This way, I had no strength for that.

Wonderful world of fungi

She came back to Belgrade to the same position and difficult times followed. In the meantime, the Institute started falling apart, left PKB and lost the status of the Institute later. They got the project to build the plant in Kosovo and she was responsible to manage production technology.

- Working in Kosovo up till 1996, we used to spend two weeks there and two weeks in Belgrade. During the whole time, I was trying to stick to my colleagues from the faculty since it was the only bond between hard work in production and my scientific work. Accidentally, with my colleague, Milan Adamovic, an expert for ruminant nutrition, we came to the idea how to use used substrate after oyster mushrooms cultivation in ruminants’ nutrition so that the overall production process could close.

The accidental idea was born and led her to the world of recycling. Thanks to this project, she started cooperation with Zero Emission Research Initiative Foundation which was at that moment funded by the United Nation Environment Program whose essence is that the waste does not exist and that everything that is waste from one production process can become raw material for another process. This cooperation which has been lasting until today enabled her implementation of more than 20 projects worldwide, from New Mexico (USA), Zimbabwe, European countries and a number of exotic islands.

Along with that, in 2000, fully enthusiastic and due to final crash of the Institute, she decided to rent a piece of land in Padinska skela, a place where she used to work hard, set up greenhouse and start production of mushrooms and oyster mushroom.

- The objective was to make it a modern production which will serve as an educational center as well where we will bring colleagues from abroad. We became terrible indebted and started production in 2003. I am not making a difference between genders but I realize there are millions things that come in handy for us. Women are vain on the one hand but on the other hand women ask and show they are afraid of something which is our extremely important feature.

(with a student from Africa)

Although Dina mushrooms did not become an experimental field or an experimental station of the University, due to Ivanka’s long-term contacts, students from Agricultural faculty have been coming even today to do experiments and a couple of PhD’s were finished at the land in Padinska skela. Working with them, Ivanka was at the same time implementing innovations in her work.

Until 2009, they were producing 70, 80 tons of mushrooms with continuous implementation of innovations and following all world standards. However, according to Ivanka, the most difficult period in her life was about to come. Even then, they did not stop investing in development.

Salvation in innovations

- There was a tycoon hit on our production because the basic building where we worked and kept goods was sold in the privatization package of Agroekonomika. They insisted on selling the building or on us purchasing it. We again became indebted and came into the situation I had never been. In order to start again, we started construction for oyster mushrooms production. In the meantime, fuel price boosted, our product was cheap, we invested in new section for oyster mushrooms which we could not put into operation because it was remunerative. In search for a solution, led by the idea that it is easier if we deal with the crisis together which lasts here almost as long as my working age, we joined forces with other producers and formed a collective Sistem EKO Fungi.

It turned out to be a smart decision because in 2012 an opportunity arose for Ivanka to do things she is best at – to manage technology. Based on her experience worldwide, together with her associates, she thought of the way how to eliminate electricity consumption. They developed an innovation facility which produces substrate for oyster mushrooms cultivation using waste. Electricity consumption was eliminated and microbiological method was applied – instead of fuel for heating, microorganism’s strength is used and thus parameters essential to provide adequate quality of substrate for oyster mushrooms cultivation is used.

Thanks to the support of the Fund for innovation activity, industrial production in line with the new technology has started in June this year. Ivana says she has never been so satisfied.

- I am a huge fan of this production because throughout the years I learnt that Serbia is the country of small, expensive products and all the stories based on that are useless. Apart from that, project can be implemented at any meadow in Serbia and thus through that kind of production new people can be hired.

Innovations were patented and the EKO Fungi’s project was one of 100 described examples in the publication "Plava ekonomija" (ZERI), which promotes examples of industrial production which can be started fast and cheaply and whose principles Ivanka supports. The innovative production model attracted students from all over the world to Padinska skela and the interested from abroad have already announced their wish to purchase the technology.

(Photo: ekofungi.com)

Under control of Eko Fungi, 120 tons of mushrooms per year is produced on Zrenjaninski put and they hope for the production of 15-20 tons of oyster mushroom. Mushrooms from the Padinska skela-based section are served at the Belgrade-based Hyatt hotel, restaurants such as Hacienda Madera, Alo alo, as well as with bakery products in bakeries in Belgrade.

What is a business women pattern?

Balance and a connection between theory and practice has always been a primary thing for Ivanka. She was lecturing in Torino, but not in Belgrade. She participated at the first conference dedicated to female entrepreneurship in the biotechnology field which has recently been held in Belgrade, she cooperates with the Mycology association of Serbia and even though she comes from the family of teachers, since her mother was a history teacher, she thinks she is not for the career of professor.

She was brought up in the spirit: order, work, discipline. Therefore, she does not find it difficult tp get up in the morning when there is nobody awake, take three crates of mushrooms and delivers them to cafes.

She admits she is strict to her associates but that essentially they are a big family because they solve all sorts of problems together.

She is not married and she does not have kids. She likes cooking, theatre, and cinema. She travels a lot for both business purposes and organizing family travels. Generally speaking, she says she lives outside. She has many friends in Serbia and abroad with whom she maintains strong connections. She spends her day usually at work but she admits she is satisfied although, she says, she does not in any sense fit in the business women pattern according to Serbian standards.

Ivana Bezarevic