Organic Apple Juice and Juicing Plant

There as been a juicing plant producing unfiltered juices from the regional fruit species in Hostětín since the autumn of 2000. It has a production capacity of about 300 tons of apples per year. 

Most of the juice production supplied to shops and supermarkets across the Czech Republic from here is of organic quality („BIO – product of ecological farming”), and they also offer interesting blends (beetroot, mint, green tea), and syrups (elderberry, mint, cannabis, rooibos). The Hostětín apple juice differs from other juices on the market because of the traditional manufacturing process consisting of juice preservation by pasteurization without dilution, filtration, and sugar addition. Another difference is a regional origin of raw materials: the apples come from the White Carpathian area.

The construction was made possible thanks to financial and technical support from Luxembourg partners – Hëllef fir d’Natur Foundation and the Luxembourg Ministry of Environment. The juicing plant is owned by the Veronica Foundation and run by the Moštárna Hostětín, Ltd. Veronica Foundation enhanced the capacity of the juicing plant by investing into a new pressing plant, juice pasteurization technology and storage in 2007.

Hostětín has been one of the locations for the Traditions of the White Carpathians association of NGOs since 1995. The association has been focussing on the preservation and exploitation of old regional fruit species and promotion of traditional fruit growing. In the autumn of 1998, an old wooden fruit drying kiln was restored in the garden of the farmstead purchased by the Veronica Foundation (this is the last drying kiln that remains of the 10 kilns that once existed in the village). Residents of the village dry about 4.5 tons of fruit in the kiln per season.