Made in Croatia

As Novac/Matea Grbac writes on the 13th of May, 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to the Croatian craft beer industry, who claim that they cannot survive with so much less traffic and online sales. ''We're doing business, but it isn't enough. It's better than nothing, but it's still far from the real numbers,'' Davor Simisis, the owner of the the Varionica pivovara (brewery), explained the current state of the Croatian craft beer industry in a brief statement, which, like most other industries, has been hit by the crisis. According to estimates, the Croatian craft beer industry,…

As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 13th of May, 2020, video-on-demand platforms are the fastest growing way to use audiovisual content, and during the time of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, they recorded a significant increase in traffic. This gave one innovative Zagreb company a boost. Here in Croatia, Netflix, HBOgo and Amazon are by far the most popular VOD (video on demand) platforms, but over time, some specialised ones have found their place among the competition, including the aforementioned giants. One of them is Svevid, the first Croatian on demand platform that started operating in early May via the…

With so much focus being placed on just what to do with not only Croatian tourism but the tourism industries of the whole world, could something Made in Croatia manage to help rescue what's left of tourism from coronavirus? As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 12th of May, 2020, Ivan Bestvina is the co-founder and chief data scientist at ViraTrace. He graduated from the school in Osijek, and then five years ago, he graduated from FER. Back in 2017 he received his master's degree from there. In parallel, he worked as a programmer, analyst and data scientist at the likes…

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes on the 8th of May, 2020, a group of a dozen innovators who have come together owing to the internet portal Pandemija.info, volunteer day and night to make Croatian respirators for the protection of health professionals, and this Croatian product is perhaps best known as CroResp. "We designed a respirator that protects the whole face, and most importantly - the eyes and the airways. The respirator is made of a diving mask, an adapter and a virus filter ", explained Dr. Ivor Kovic, an emergency medicine specialist and the initiator of both the portal and the…

May 9 - Highlighting uhljeb brilliance and official incompetence in Croatia may look like good, clean clickbait fun, but it is actually quite a depressing part of the job.  Croatia is an incredible country, and one which would be ten times more incredible if it was run by competent officials who had the interest of citizens and pride in their jobs at the core of everything they do. There are occasional glimpses of what Croatia COULD be like - check out the outstanding response to the corona crisis from a health perspective by new health minister Vili Beros as a…

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes on the 8th of May, 2020, Business Intelligence (Poslovna Inteligencija) participated in the EUvsVirus hackathon organised by the European Commission (EC) in close cooperation with EU member states and the Croatian project called Birdbox entered the finals among 10 percent of the best projects in the field of Digital Finance. In the final, the Croatian project Birdbox was selected as one of the 117 most promising solutions to participate in a Matchathon event which will be held from May the 22nd to the 25th, 2020, where Croatia's Poslovna Inteligencija team will have the opportunity to further…

May 8, 2020 - Beware the Croatian inspector - a new series courtesy of Glas Poduzetnika (Voice of Entrepreneurs), highlighting a Croatian business reality that helps kill growth, profit, and entrepreneurship. Complaining Brings More Problems. I have seen them operating all over the country over the last 18 years, the most feared visitors to Croatia's cafes, restaurants, and other businesses - the Croatian inspector.  As with many corrupt countries, the role of the inspector should be to make sure that the rules are being adhered to in the particular area they specialize in - sanitary, fiscal, etc - but in…

May 7, 2020 - What a lovely email! How a fun YouTube series in the early days of TCN became a national phenomenon. It is all thanks to Professor Frank John Dubokovich, Guardian of the Hvar Dialects. It started out as a joke, something to fill some content in the first month of my new portal, Total Hvar, way back in November 2011. It became such a cult hit that it soon hit national television, then British reality TV,  and now - so I learned today 8.5 years later, a catalyst to preserve some of Croatia's dying culture forever.  My…

May 7, 2020 - Beware the Croatian inspector - a new series courtesy of Glas Poduzetnika (Voice of Entrepreneurs), highlighting a Croatian business reality that helps kill growth, profit, and entrepreneurship. Do You Have The Money or Not? I have seen them operating all over the country over the last 18 years, the most feared visitors to Croatia's cafes, restaurants, and other businesses - the Croatian inspector.  As with many corrupt countries, the role of the inspector should be to make sure that the rules are being adhered to in the particular area they specialize in - sanitary, fiscal, etc…

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes on the 6th of May, 2020, Carlsberg Croatia has recently joined the trend of more and more companies starting to produce disinfectants and protective agents in order to combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Namely, the brewery in Koprivnica processed 4,000 litres of fruit wine that was supposed to become a refreshing Somersby cider into hand sanitiser, called it Clean hands (Čiste ruke) and gave it to Carlsberg Croatia's employees to make them and their families even safer. They donated the remaining amount to the local community, the City of Koprivnica, from which they directed the disinfectant…