ZAGREB, 20 May 2022 - The Ministry of Agriculture on Friday reported that according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, in 2021 the area covered with vineyards increased by 7% compared with 2019 and now amounts to 21,213 hectares.
This has resulted to a large extent from the Ministry's contribution of HRK 416 million (€55.5 million) from national aid schemes from the 2019 - 2023 wine envelope.
The ARKOD register in the Agriculture Payment Agency has 18,126 hectares registered with vineyards which relate to areas receiving subsidies and professional wine producers.
The difference can be attributed to vineyards kept as a hobby and others which also strongly contribute to Croatia's wine production, the ministry said.
The ministry notes that the measures within the wine envelope also encompass the Restructuring and Conversion measure with HRK 90 million in support, HRK 56 million of which has been paid so far.
At the same time, HRK 298 million has been made available under the Investments in enterprises measure.
In reference to the hardship experienced during the corona crisis, in addition to increasing the intensity of subsidies in the wine envelope, two crisis measures were introduced in 2020 and 2021 which the European Commission approved during Croatia's presidency of the EU.
About HRK 76 million was invested in 2020 alone to help stabilize the market against the backdrop of a drastic fall in wine sales during the COVID crisis, the ministry said.
(€1 = HRK 7.529183)
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