Croatian Pigs Go Digital – PigsNFTs Worth Real Meat Hit The Market

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has arrived at Croatian Farms. GoAgro, a new digital agricultural financing platform, has released the first-ever collection of PigNFTs on September 7, giving users a chance to invest in digital pigs that can be converted into real pork meat. 

NFTs Against War and Famine

Croatia's countless cornfields make the Balkan country an ideal location for pig farms to prosper. However, changing political, economic, and environmental conditions in Croatia and abroad have seen the once-thriving agricultural sector face a recent decline. 

As the world becomes an increasingly inhospitable place, food self-sufficiency has emerged as a national concern that, in the opinion of Agroporc director Krešimir Kuterovac, should be put straight into the hands of every citizen. 

To provide the tools for it, Agroporc has partnered with digital solution companies Beyondi and Blck Be to create GoAgro, a platform for the decentralized funding of the national agricultural industry, which sells the rights to agricultural stock in the form of NFTs to consumers. 

"Croatia's biggest problem in terms of national security is insufficient food production because we produce only about 50 per cent of our needs," says Kuterovac in an interview with local newspaper Privredni

With estimates pointing to a 20% decrease in pig production during the next two years, the instrumental animals were GoAgro's choice for its inaugural collection. 

On sale for €225 each, GoAgro plans to issue a total of 240,000 Pig NFTs in five phases, allowing production to take off in two Agroporc farms in the municipality of Crnac by the end of the year.

Slower than real-life pigs, crypto pigs fatten at a growth rate of 3% yearly and will be ready for consumption after 5 years. Now worth 100 kg of pork meat, tokens can be redeemable for 115.9kg of pork meat after the investment reaches maturity. They can also be sold on the stock exchange through the platform or held as an investment. 

Cutting off the intermediary

One of the oldest forms of human activity, agriculture, is nowadays an arena where giant investors play, skimming profit from the journey of food from farm to table.

In an interview with the Croatian newspaper Poslovni, Agricultural analyst Miroslav Kuskunović emphasized that the revolutionary element of the project is in eliminating the need for a middleman.

"In recent years, we have seen that retail chains and those who purchase and trade in goods dictate the state of the market, so producers receive low purchase prices, and consumers pay high prices for food. This alliance could be a kind of revolution and an investment by us consumers in the future of agriculture, which is certainly needed in Croatia," 

By making financing directly available to farmers and ownership of a means of sustenance possible to consumers, GoAgro shows that the ethos of decentralization and ownership that permeates blockchain technology is expanding beyond the borders of cryptocurrencies and digital art. And while the NFT market is down, crypto pigs show that much of the technology's potential is still unexplored.