Prochema Modra

Driving from Austria to Slovakia, you immediately notice the many castles; some restored as in a fairy-tale, others in ruins. In the 11th and 12th century, Slovakia – in those days under Hungarian regime – was rich in minerals such as silver, copper and gold. To protect these resources large forts were built. We still find these castles and forts anywhere in the country. Slovakia is about five times smaller than the UK and has only 5½ million inhabitants

Despite the grey weather, the green wooded area overlooking the Carpathian Mountains in the distance is impressive. The Carpathians begin near the Danube in Bratislava and extend over the entire length of Slovakia into Ukraine and Romania. I am on my way to the company Prochema Modra, a private organisation owned by Vladimír Sodoma. The company is active in various fields. It consists of three farms with a total area of 1660 hectares, mainly farmland and vineyards, a contractor business and a retail business selling plant protection products, gardening tools and bacteria for septic tanks.

Arriving in Modra, we start with Turkish coffee. Vladimir states that on the arable land mainly wheat and sunflowers grow, in addition to smaller plots with grassland, canola and triticale (a crossbreed between durum and common wheat with rye). Vladimír deliberately opts for different companies, which however all have plant protection in common as a focus. Vladimir’s parents worked at the company when it was still a cooperative under the socialist regime. In 1995, he transformed the cooperative into the current company Prochema. He bought the Condor ClearancePlus mainly for his contractor business in order to deliver a better service and more yield to his customers. Of course the machine is also used on their own farms.

Vladimír explains that each investment, including the new sprayer, aims to cope with the current poor market situation. The global crisis also hit the euro zone in 2008, where a recession emerged. Especially new member states were hit hard by the faltering global economy. In Slovakia, the economic decline was over 10 percent within a year. Prochema had 77 employees before the crisis, now there are 40. However, the company is doing very well, especially given the slowly recovering market. Entrepreneur Vladimír speaks with pride about his business, and he has every right.

Meanwhile Maroslav Valach, the driver of the sprayer, joins us. Maroslav is 28 years old and has been working for nine years at Prochema. Several generations before him worked here, it’s a real family tradition.

He affirms readily Vladimír words:

Vladimír adds.
He wants to spray a minimum of 12,000 ha per year and is confident to exceed this. The fields are relatively small, an average of about 70 hectares, which means a lot of driving between fields. Another area where the Condor excels, he says.