Exports are on the rise, and the quality of the wines has been recognised beyond the borders of Croatia, said Croatian Chamber of Commerce’s vice-president for agriculture and tourism, Dragan Kovačević. In 2018, Croatia exported 16 million euro worth of wines, of which 938,799 euro went to Serbia, an increase of 35 per cent compared to 2017, reports Agrobiz.hr on March 31, 2019.
Among the 300 top-quality wines from all over the world presented at the Wine Style wine salon in Belgrade this Saturday, there were 13 Croatian wineries – Medea, Kutjevo, Vinoplod-Šibenik, Zigante, PZ Vrbnik, Iločki Podrumi, Stina Vino, Degrassi, Dingač Skaramuča, Plavac Mali DNZ, Feravino and Pjenušci Peršurić. The participation at the Wine Style was co-financed by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, as part of the project of promoting Croatian wines in Serbian market in 2019, worth one million kuna, with 80 per cent being financed from EU funds.
“The continuous promotion is necessary to create the brand, and we want Croatia to be branded in the eyes of the world as a country which can offer high-quality wines and autochthonous varieties. The results of efforts we make to promote the Croatian wines can be seen in figures,” said Kovačević.
"This project is significant. It is our pleasure to see that the state is looking at us in a different way and that the Croatian Chamber of Commerce is investing so much effort into Croatia becoming a wine country,” said Moreno Degrassi, the owner of the Degrassi winery.
The wineries also presented their offer at a promotional wine evening held at the Writers Club restaurant. It enabled the distributors and restaurant owners to experience the potential of new vintages under the guidance of the well-known sommelier Igor Luković. "The evening is a beautiful walk through three wine regions. Croatia has launched a wine renaissance, and the state and its institutions have recognised it in the right way. People in Serbia really drink Croatian wines, especially the ones from the coastal regions, which they remember from their summer holidays,” said Luković.
"The Serbian market is interesting to us because Serbs are happy to remember the times spent on Croatian coast and readily drink our wines. This has been proven by other winemakers who have already made a great success here, and I hope that we will find our place in the Serbian market as well," said Degrassi, who exports 15% of his production to Slovenia, Belgium, Sweden and Austria.
All the wineries will also be present at the Novi Sad Wine Salon in April, and the project will also provide for a trip to Dalmatia in May, in order to get the media and wine experts and distributors better acquainted with Croatian wineries.
The Croatian Chamber of Commerce has brought together all the wine producers under the umbrella brand “Vina Croatia - Vina Mosaica” to increase the visibility of Croatia on the global wine map as a country offering diverse and high-quality wines.
Translated from Agrobiz.hr.
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