Deep Roots

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During one of these events, the Croatian Prime Minister and

Minister of Agriculture visited several young farmers’ farms,

and spent the whole day with them to get important infor-

mation about what they want and where they see Croatian

agriculture in the future.

Young farmers are linked with their counterparts from other

EU countries and are preparing projects for rural develop-

ment. They monitor everything that happens on the global

market and expect the state to start the important process

of transfer of ownership of family farms from the old to the

younger generation. They have great expectations of the EU

to encourage this process, and they think it important that

the banking sector strongly encourages young people to enter

into this business with favourable credit arrangements. With

the strength of the young and support from the EU budget, in

the next decade Croatia could become a good example of how

agriculture progresses when the young take the lead.

Apart from this reform policy, the other way forward is to

join together. Former models of agricultural product sales

on the Croatian market and in export have shown that small

producers cannot sell their products independently. Big retail

chains dominate the market which is not ready to repurchase

small quantities of products. It has been noticed that in a

farm-to-table chain, the integral part which links producers

with retailers – cooperatives, clusters and product organiza-

tions – is missing.

As mentioned above, Croatian farmers still have nega-

tive connotations from the past with these associations, as

they were once forced to join. Today’s global movement

is compelling them to change their way of thinking and

the establishment of numerous cooperatives and producer

groups is expected soon, especially in the fruit and vegetable

sector and in the production of authentic Croatian products.

The CAP encourages more fruit and vegetables, but it is a

prerequisite that the producers are affiliated. For this reason

Croatia, during the summer, launched an awareness campaign

to encourage the process of association to be put in place as

soon as possible.

Today, Croatia is a part of the European community and

offers a variety of authentic products – perhaps not yet

recognized on a wider European market but with big poten-

tial through tourism – as one of the major sectors of the

country’s economy. Every tourist who visits Croatia will enjoy

village farm products such as vines, olive oil, mandarins and

Slavonian kulen. It is hoped that most of the food produced

in Croatia can sell itself through tourism. In that way, Croatia

can become recognized throughout the world and reach out

to the consumers outside its borders.

Over the past 10 years, Croatia has invested a lot of

money in wine and grape production, and now there are

recognizable Croatian wines on the world wine industry

map. The combination of wine, food and tourism is some-

thing that becomes a Croatian brand. The enormous growth

of tourism and the fact that Croatia has become one of the

top tourist destinations confirms that the sector still has

room for growth and development. Wine roads, fine wine

cellars, restaurants and beautiful scenery have become the

subject of numerous international travel magazines, and

many television companies that have visited these places

in Croatia have been amazed by the blend of flavours,

fragrances and beauty.

Through tourism, Croatian food becomes recognizable.

Visitors in Istria or Dalmatia are always impressed by the taste

and quality of olive oil, for example, or of cheese produced

from the milk of cows and from goats walking freely on the

islands. Croatia has no shortage of beautiful and important

Image: Minister of Agriculture, Croatia

Croatia has one of the most important fisheries sectors in the Mediterranean

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