Turkish conglomerate opens factory in Slovenia that produces autonomous vehicles for agriculture

By Mustafa Talha Ozturk, Ismail Ozdemir and Ahmet Nurduhan

LOGATEC, Slovenia (AA) – Turkish conglomerate Peker Holding opened a factory on Thursday for producing autonomous vehicles or robots for cultivating agricultural land and a new management center for its subsidiary Pek Automotive in the southwestern town of Logatec in Slovenia.

Aylin Tashan, Türkiye’s ambassador to Slovenia, said at the opening ceremony for the plant that Slovenia is an ally of Türkiye.

Tashan said the bilateral trade volume between Türkiye and Slovenia reached $2.55 billion last year.

Jernej Salecl, director-general of Slovenia’s Ministry of Economy, highlighted the importance of the factory’s opening as it signals a bright future for Europe.

Mikhail Kostkin, CEO of Pek Automotive, said they are one of the leading players in the agricultural robot production field.

Hasan Peker, CEO of Peker Holding, told Anadolu that the firm had acquired projects in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK and received 14 patents so far.

Peker noted that the new factory in Slovenia will have an annual production capacity of 1,500 units, working with artificial intelligence (AI) that can operate all day all year-round, saving energy and reducing dependence on manual labor.

He added that the mass-produced agricultural robots will be sold at lower prices than their counterparts.

An investment of $126.8 million was made to develop the agricultural robot and prepare the factory for production.

The robots to be produced at the factory will provide a significant reduction in the costs farmers pay in many parts of the world.

The opening ceremony for the factory was also attended by Slovenian ministers, officials and delegations from Türkiye and Italy as well as managers and prominent figures from European banks and the European business world at large.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul