A visionary from Austria became a pioneer of organic agriculture in Austria and post-revolutionary Czechoslovakia
Johannes Gutmann was born on June 23, 1965, in Zwettl, Lower Austria, and grew up in the nearby village of Sprögnitz, where his family made a living by farming. As the youngest son, he was supposed to take over the homestead from his parents, which, however, he did not want to. After graduating from the business academy in 1984, he agreed with his parents that his brother would take over the farm. He didn‘t want to be a farmer, he longed for a business in organic farming. In 1985, he took a trip to Czechoslovakia and was surprised by the state of agriculture there: the absence of private farms, broad fields without bosques, and the level of chemical spraying. Three years later, he founded a company for producing bio-quality herbs and named it Sonnentor. After the Iron Curtain fell, he decided to expand his vision to Czechoslovakia, or the Czech Republic. In 1990, he met Tomáš Mitáček, a graduate of the Brno Agricultural University. Two years later, they established the Czech Sonnentor, which is based in Čejkovice today (the year 2022). The company employs around 450 people.