Business

May the 25th, 2022 - Croatian IT sector wages continue to be the lowest in the entire European Union (EU) despite the fact that this rapidly blossoming field has experienced a very real boom over the last few years. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, the cost of paying out wages for EU-based employers has continued to rise in most countries, with the exception of a few countries that stalled in 2020 and continued to grow, including the Republic of Croatia. According to a quarterly analysis of labour market trends by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (CBS), based on Eurostat data, only…

May the 23rd, 2022 - Croatian labour market struggles are continuing as we hurtle rapidly towards the height of the summer season, and the German media has had a say in just what this country continues to do wrong year after year. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, it is estimated that approximately 35,000 waiters, chefs, waiters, receptionists and other profiles within the tourism industry will be missing this summer. But the most striking fact is that the complaints of catering and hospitality employers are somehow always accompanied by some weird (and misplaced) sense of surprise. Everyone is surprised in a certain…

ZAGREB, 22 May 2022 - The company called Phyox, specialised in production of microalgae, substances rich in minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and unsaturated fatty acids, has invested 6.6 million euros in a microalgae production project in the city of Novska, the Večernji List daily reported on Sunday. The project will enable the commercial production of microalgae for the pharmaceutical industry. The project has already gone through the stages of laboratory tests and trial production and the production of microalgae for commercial purposes is expected to start soon.  There are plans to produce 40 tonnes annually. According to the information on the web site…

May the 22nd, 2022 - The German Lurssen Group has opened its Rijeka engineering centre, which will come very handy when it comes to the development of ideas and design. As Morski writes, the German Lurssen Group, which specialises in the design and production of luxury megayachts, has opened the doors of its brand new Rijeka engineering centre. It will develop ideas and design some of the most modern and expensive vessels in the world there, and after the Rijeka engineering centre, the German group has announced further investments. Since entering the Croatian market just a couple of years ago,…

ZAGREB, 21 May, 2022 - The European Commission's "REPowerEU", which envisages that JANAF can become a strategically important oil pipeline and that the Krk LNG terminal should increase its capacities, creates great opportunities for Croatia as a future energy hub in this part of Europe, expert Igor Dekanić tells Hina. On 18 May, the Commission unveiled "REPowerEU" as its response to the hardships and global energy market disruption caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On that occasion the EC said that "there is a double urgency to transform Europe's energy system: ending the EU's dependence on Russian fossil fuels, which are used as an economic…

ZAGREB, 20 May 2022 - The main Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) indices -- the Crobex and the specialized Crobex 10 -- rose by 0.39% to 2081.62 points and by 0.37% to 1240.79 points respectively on Friday. Today's turnover was HRK 4.3 million, a million kuna more than on Thursday. None of the stocks passed the turnover mark of one million kunas. The highest turnover, HRK 982,300, was generated by the stock of the Valamar Riviera tourism company. It share price rose 2.1% to HRK 34.10 per share. A total of 40 stocks were traded today, with 15 of them increasing and also 15 decreasing, and 10 remaining…

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…

ZAGREB, 20 May 2022 - Slovenia's Geoplin gas operator has failed to get the remaining free capacity at the LNG terminal on the island of Krk, so it will probably have to turn to other sources to end its dependence on the Russian natural gas, Slovenian media outlets reported on Friday. The second-largest Slovenian wholesale natural gas supplier Geoplin was left "empty-handed" in the tender for the remaining free capacity in Omišalj, which despite different expectations, went to the natural gas company Prvo Plinarsko Društvo (PPD), a Croatian partner of the Russian Gazprom, the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) said, quoting…

May the 20th, 2022 - The lacking Croatian labour force and the situation of just ''not being able to get the staff'' is having a seriously negative effect on tourism employers across the country. Some are having to close their doors. We recently wrote about the Croatian tourism sector lacking enormous numbers of workers for the rapidly approaching summer tourist season, and it seems that the situation is being felt up and down the country in areas which would usually be rubbing their hands in excitement for a decent post-pandemic season. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Northern Adriatic region of…

May the 20th, 2022 - The construction of the second Croatian underground gas storage facility is now underway following approximately sixteen very long years of discussions on the matter. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, after almost sixteen years of discussions and plans to build the second Croatian underground gas storage facility (PSP) Grubisno Polje (GP), the war in Ukraine and the ensuing energy crisis have suddenly made such strategic facilities very desirable and deeply necessary. Although activities on the project began in parallel with the Russian attack on Ukraine back in February, the start of works on the new Croatian…