Business

ZAGREB, August 18,, 2019 - Traditional winter food storage vegetables - peppers and cucumbers - are grown less and less in Croatia, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) has reported. In 2018, pepper growers produced 18,106 tonnes of that vegetable, 6% less than in 2017, when 19,303 tonnes of peppers were grown. The situation with cucumbers is even less favourable, with only 6,442 tonnes produced in 2018, almost 40% less than in 2017, when the yield was 10,662 tonnes. In the same period cucumber imports grew by more than five percent while pepper imports increased by close to 15%. An…

As Morski writes on the 18th of August, 2019, care for not only health but the environment have become a priority in shaping the consumer habits of many modern customers, which is why more and more Croatian companies are branding their products with eco-labels. ''We're pleased that Croatian companies have recognised the importance of standardised eco-labels, one of which is the most widely recognised EU Ecolabel. They add an additional dimension to the competitiveness and quality of Croatian producers, and show that a successful environmental business can be reconciled, that is, environmental care and profit can go hand in hand,''…

''We need to give up one percent of the profits for the benefit of our workers if we want to run a successful business in the long run,'' says Bruno Bulić, an advisor and former trade unionist. The move marks some welcome news for the employees of the Maslinica hotel group. As Glas Istre/Branko Biocic writes on the 17th of August, 2019, the hotel company Maslinica d.o.o. from Rabac, which is otherwise Italian-owned, has decided to pay another 2,000 kuna net to all employees who were employed in July, regardless of their type of contract with the company. This financial…

ZAGREB, August 16, 2019 - The offer made by the Vukovar-based Energia Naturalis company for the purchase of shares in the Port of Ploče was accepted by 119 shareholders, and as a result of buying an additional 10.36% of the stock, Energia Naturalis now has 36.01% interest in the Luka Ploče joint stock company, the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) reported on Friday. On 10 July, Energia Naturalis published its offer for the takeover of the company whose core business are maritime traffic services, stevedoring and warehousing of goods. The offer expired on 7 August and until then 119 shareholders accepted…

ZAGREB, August 16, 2019 - In the first half of 2019, a total of 555 counterfeit banknotes were detected in circulation in Croatia, the Croatian National Bank (HNB) has reported, underscoring that it "is a decrease of 62.7% from total registered banknote counterfeits of all currencies in the same period in 2018". Of those 555 forged banknotes, 278 counterfeits were kuna banknotes, which is an increase of 5.7% relative to 263 registered counterfeit kuna banknotes withdrawn from circulation in the same period in 2018. "Given an average of 254.3 million kuna banknotes in circulation in the first half of 2019,…

ZAGREB, August 16, 2019 - Consumer prices in Croatia in July this year were 1.1% higher than in July 2018, and inflation this July was higher than in June, when it stood at 0.6%, the national statistical office (DZS) said on Friday. The 1.1% year-on-year increase in consumer prices is the highest since November 2018, when inflation stood at 1.3%. Prices of alcoholic drinks and tobacco saw the highest year-on-year increase in July, of 5%, followed by prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other energy products, which rose by 3.9%. On the other hand, prices in the health segment…

ZAGREB, August 16, 2019 - There are 15,047 physicians employed in the Croatian health system according to data from the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), while the Croatian Medical Chamber (HLK) says that its statistics show that 13,613 doctors are currently hired in Croatia, the Večernji List daily said in an article in its issue on Friday. Thus, the discrepancy between these numbers is 1434, which prompted the daily newspaper to ask the HLK about that. The chamber insists that it provides figures about the currently employed doctors and those 13,613 include 271 retired doctors who work now four…

What happens when you're accused of trying to rip off an internationally famous sportswear brand like Adidas? You get cleaned out by the said internationally famous sportswear brand, and it isn't pretty. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 15th of August, 2019, Zhejiang, a Zagreb-based company which is under Chinese ownership, will have to destroy all of its sports shoes which are reminiscent of Adidas and its famous logo, and will need to reimburse the German company for the hefty legal fees incurred, the Commercial Court ruled this week. According to a report on the matter by Vecernji list, the…

ZAGREB, August 15, 2019 - The government will secure funds for a previously agreed 2% increase in the base pay of civil servants and public service employees, to go into force on September 1, Finance Minister Zdravko Marić told Hina on Wednesday, stressing that the government had a horizontal approach to civil servants and public service employees and treated them equally. The minister recalled an agreement with trade unions from 2017 when the base pay was increased in three rounds by slightly more than 6%. That dialogue continued and in 2018 and 2019 an additional increase of 3% was agreed…

ZAGREB, August 14, 2019 - Health Minister Milan Kujundžić said on Wednesday that the government would find a way to increase healthcare workers' salaries by four percent, asking healthcare workers for understanding as salaries could not be increased more, while unions of healthcare workers said they would not give up on their demand for a wage increase and could not rule out a strike. Kujundžić said that the unions had negotiated in the most fair way, with their demands regarding the wage increase being modest. "I believe the government will find a way to increase the salaries of healthcare workers…