July the 22nd, 2022 - Fire-stricken Sibenik-Knin County is set to get help set out in special measures introduced and activated by the Croatian Agriculture Ministry to rebuild what was lost to the flames.

As Morski writes, the Minister of Agriculture, Marija Vuckovic, visited the fire-stricken areas spanning Sibenik-Knin County this week, where she announced that aid for these areas from the Croatian Agriculture Ministry was set to come.

A large number of OPG (family farm) owners in Sibenik-Knin County suffered enormous damage and losses from the recent wildfire that consumed more than three thousand hectares of land in Zaton, Raslina and Vodice. Among the family farms that lost everything in the fire is that of Ivan Cvitan, whose 400 olive trees were burned in the flames, as well as the OPG owned and managed by Drazen Severdija, whose vineyard was also totally destroyed by fire.

In the Vodice area, large losses in the number of beehives and olive trees are recorded, which is absolutely tragic for numerous reasons. The aforementioned Sibenik-Knin County family farms were visited by the Minister of Agriculture, who announced the arrival of financial assistance for this Dalmatian county.

''We, as the competent ministry, will help in the restoration of the burned olive groves and vineyards through a decision made by the Croatian Government, and in cooperation with Sibenik-Knin County's administration. According to the information we received out here on the ground, about 100 hectares of olive groves, vineyards and orchards were burned down, and we will see what the damage assessment will be. In any case, we will certainly activate measure number five, which will help with the reconstruction of the burned areas,'' announced Minister Vuckovic.

As a quick reminder, due to the wildfire in which more than three thousand hectares of land in Zaton, Raslina and Vodice burned a week ago, not to mention around houses, Sibenik-Knin County declared a state of major disaster. A devastating thirty houses, several cars, boats and agricultural machinery were burnt, and domestic and farm animals lost their lives.

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ZAGREB, 7 July 2022 - Former agriculture minister Tomislav Tolušić and Željko Ferenc, an employee of the Paying Agency for Agriculture, who were arrested on Thursday on suspicion of subsidy fraud and abuse of office in two wine sector tenders, are to be interrogated by European investigators.

Tolušić and Ferenc, who were apprehended in their homes in the eastern Croatian city of Virovitica on a warrant issued by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), have been transferred to Zagreb for questioning.

A Zagreb County Court investigating judge will decide on their detention if the European investigators make such a request.

Media outlets say that Tolušić was granted HRK 2.5 million in aid for his winery project under the EU scheme in which half of the sum is covered by the non-repayable grant and the other half is provided by the business concerned.

However, it has turned out that Tolušić's putative sum of another HRK 2.5 million did not exist and that he provided false evidence to show that he met the requirements for the grant.

Tolušić reportedly incited Ferenc to give a positive opinion on his application for the grant, although the application falsely stated that the piece of land in question had no crops planted in it, when in fact he had previously planted a vineyard there.

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ZAGREB, 13 April 2022 - The Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday awarded 33 contracts worth over HRK 65 million from the Rural Development Programme.

Minister Marija Vučković said the aid focused on those transforming agriculture by increasing productivity and capacity as well as using new technologies.

We are also focused on improving living conditions in small local communities, she added.

Higher food prices

Asked by the press about higher food prices, Vučković said inflation started being higher than expected last year already and that the government responded promptly, notably in cattle breeding, which she said was the first sector to feel the inflation in terms of fodder price hikes.

"Inflation has continued this year and we can no longer say that it is transitory", she said, adding that inflation has picked up also due to the war in Ukraine.

Inflation "is first and foremost driven by energy prices", but it manifests considerably in food prices as well, the minister said.

She recalled that the government adopted a set of measures worth HRK 4.8 billion to mitigate energy price hikes and said that, if necessary, it would adopt additional measures to ease the blow to purchasing power and to reduce the risk of any kind of poverty.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

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ZAGREB, 17 Feb 2022 - Croatia's agricultural production has not contracted, as data for the first 11 months of 2021 show that both exports and imports increased considerably, with exports increasing faster, Agriculture Minister Marija Vučković said in parliament on Thursday.

"According to estimates by the national statistical office, Croatia's agricultural output grew at a rate of 8.1% in 2021," said the minister, stressing that the production had been growing for the five past years.

She addressed parliament during the presentation of the government's agriculture strategy up to 2030.

In response to harsh criticism from opposition lawmakers about a deficit in the farm sector, Vučković said that such gap could not be narrowed "with a magic wand" and could be reduced only through investment in boosting competitiveness and productivity.

The plan is to increase agricultural production from HRK 20 billion to HRK 30 billion annually by 2030, which would imply average annual growth of between 4% and 4.5%.

Vučković recalled that the government's €640 million support package to cushion the impact of energy price rises includes a €33.3 million (HRK 250 million) set of measures to help farmers and fishermen deal with increased energy prices.

The HRK 250 million aid scheme includes HRK 200 million for farmers and HRK 50 million for fishermen and will cover 88,000 family farms and 2,000 fishermen.

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ZAGREB, 10 Feb 2022 - Farm Minister Marija Vučković said on Thursday the European Commission's call on Croatia to ensure an effective monitoring, control and inspection of bluefin tuna farms referred to audits from 2017-19 and that Croatia had since significantly improved its agriculture legislation.

"Croatia has two months to prepare a response. We'll see if the Commission will recognise all that we have done. I think we have done plenty," the minister told the press in Sveti Đurđ in Varaždin County.

As part of this month's infringements package, Croatia received a letter of formal notice after an audit and verification by the Commission "identified serious shortcomings in monitoring the transfer and caging operations of bluefin tuna."

"National authorities should ensure that data are cross-checked, accurate and validated, and should investigate potential non-compliance cases and take administrative or criminal measures against those responsible for infringing EU law," the Commission said, adding that Croatia "has not taken the necessary steps to address these deficiencies."

Croatia has two months to respond to the letter and take the necessary measures, the Commission said, adding, "In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion."

The press asked Vučković to comment on fisheries inspector Marko Pupić Bakrač's statement after the letter of notice, that she should resign or the prime minister should replace her.

The minister is meddling in the work of the inspectorate and telling us what to do, while documents on tuna imports in Croatia are being falsified, he said.

As reported by Slobodna Dalmacija daily, Pupić Bakrač said Croatian tuna farmers were being favored by being made to register tuna imported from Libya only after they exported it to Japan.

Meetings on that are held at the Agriculture Ministry, attended by a dozen ministry employees, and the minister, in agreement with farmers, tells inspectors how to act, he said, calling it abuse of office. He also warned about suspicious activities in the unloading of forage fish intended for tuna farms.

Vučković said Pupić Bakrač was "lying incredibly. He claims that I regularly met with farmers and fisheries inspectors to instruct them on how to conduct fisheries inspections. He's lying... I have never done it. Let him find one inspector or one farmer who will back him up."

She also said proceedings had been instigated against Pupić Bakrač at the Civil Service Tribunal "for violating regulations" and that this was not the first time.

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ZAGREB, 9 Feb 2022 - Croatian Agriculture Minister Marija Vučković met with Kosovo's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, Faton Peci, in Zagreb on Wednesday to discuss ways of intensifying cooperation in agriculture.

The meeting took place as part of a three-day visit by a Kosovo delegation, and the ministers agreed to update the 2008 memorandum of understanding in the coming period.

Kosovo is actively preparing to obtain the status of an official candidate for European Union membership and would appreciate a further exchange of knowledge and experience with Croatian experts in agriculture and forestry, the Croatian ministry said in a statement, adding that there is a possibility for joint projects through the TAIEX technical assistance programme or through twinning programmes.

Peci invited Vučković for an official visit to Kosovo.

Kosovo is interested in Croatian companies investing in its agricultural and food sector, and in this context, the possibility of organising a meeting between business people during the Croatian minister's visit to Kosovo was mentioned.

Peci also showed an interest in Croatian expertise in the use of biomass and the construction of power plants, as well as in heating and electric power production.

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ZAGREB, 31 January 2022 - Agriculture Minister Marija Vučković presented farmers in Sisak-Moslavina County on Monday with four new contracts for aid from the Rural Development Programme for local projects.

Vučković said that projects worth HRK 1.18 billion had been agreed so far for this county and that most of this amount had been paid out. She said that this had helped farmers maintain and develop their production during the times of the coronavirus pandemic and earthquakes.

An additional HRK 1.2 billion in aid has been paid out from other programmes since 2014, which makes it a total of HRK 2.4 billion, the minister stressed.

Vučković said that new measures for Sisak-Moslavina County were also in the pipeline, including a further HRK6.5 million "to encourage new demographic trends", and additional aid to help farmers cope with increased costs due to the rise in energy and mineral fertilizer prices.

Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Ivan Celjak said he was confident the ministry would continue to be a partner to the farmers in repairing the earthquake damage, increasing production and marketing their products.

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ZAGREB, 24 Oct, 2021 - The Croatian Ministry of Agriculture put a HRK 30 million (€4m) aid scheme for sugar beet producers to public consultation earlier this week.

The scheme will provide financial support to sugar beet farmers facing a slowdown or complete suspension of economic activity caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It should help them recover from losses, provide liquidity, restore the pre-pandemic level of primary production, maintain the present level of employment and prevent disruptions to the food supply chain. 

The ministry said that the pandemic has hit hard nearly all sectors of the economy, including agriculture, and that in the case of cropland it has resulted in a strong decrease in areas sown with sugar beet.

Only 10,200 hectares of land was sown with sugar beet in the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, down by 20.3 percent compared with the pre-pandemic average for 2018-2019 and by nearly 48 percent compared with 2017.

The value of the scheme is HRK 30 million (€4m) and the entire amount will be provided from the state budget. The aid will be allocated in accordance with the Temporary COVID-19 Framework, the ministry said.

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ZAGREB, 16 Oct, 2021 - Agriculture and the energy industry are the two main sectors enabling each society and state to function normally, and therefore in the next decade, €7.5 billion will be invested in the agricultural sector, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Zagreb on Saturday.

Addressing an Agriculture Ministry event dedicated to promoting farming, fisheries and forestry, the Prime Minister said that his cabinet spared no effort to help agricultural producers, the food and timber industries and the fisheries.

The government has sent to the parliament a draft strategy on agriculture, and the document, which should be adopted this year, envisages investments in agriculture of some €7.5 billion in the next decade, which should help the Croatian agricultural sector to reach the target of HRK 30 billion (€4 billion) of annual production.

During the term of this government, over a score of state aid schemes have been designed and mostly implemented, and their value is estimated at €253 million, provided from the state budget, Plenković said, recalling prompt interventions to address market disruptions caused by the coronavirus crisis and natural disasters.

In the livestock sector, nine measures and schemes are being implemented in response to problems caused by the COVID-19 crisis, and HRK 450 million has been made available as part of the government's aid schemes, he said, adding that an HRK 163.5 million scheme is in the pipeline to help businesses affected by fodder price rises.

From 2016 to 2019, state grants amounted to HRK 11.1 billion, and in 2020, HRK 3.2 billion was disbursed as state aid, the PM said.

The Rural Development Programme has made HRK 22.8 billion available to beneficiaries, and of that amount 18 billion has been contracted, and 13.8 billion has been disbursed for investments in agriculture, the PM told the event.

The fisheries branch has been provided with HRK 2.3 billion in grants within the Operational Programme for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, and to date more than 1.2 billion has been disbursed.

Plenković went on to say that the government has increased outlays for investments in food safety and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan envisages the provision of infrastructure for a food bank and for participants in the food donation chain. This is one of the important reforms, worth HRK 32 million, he said.

Agriculture Minister Marija Vučković said that the aim of the strategy would be to increase the output in the agricultural sector to HRK 30 billion annually until 2030.

The implementation of the strategy will require €7.5 billion, and the government plans allocations for this purpose in the amount of five billion euros until 2027 through the multiannual financial framework, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the state budget, she explained.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

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ZAGREB, 21 Sept, 2021 - Despite the big risks in the sector - shortage of labour force, age structure and health - primary tobacco production has a future in Croatia, Agriculture Minister Marija Vučković said on Tuesday at the 21st Tobacco Fields Day, held near Virovitica.

Minister Vučković said that tobacco production is valuable and that in Croatia it has its organisers, relatively secure purchase, the possibility of processing and a closed cycle to the production of almost finished products, which any country would support.

Besides income support, we will endeavour to support all investment initiatives through the rural development programme, said Vučković. She added that the government and ministry advocate retaining support at all levels in the European Union, specifying that an envelope valued at HRK 42 million is envisaged for the tobacco sector, the same as last year.

The Hrvatski Duhani company, which organised Tobacco Fields Day, has 360 producers in Podravina and Slavonia who cultivate 2,700 hectares of tobacco land.

The total annual value of buying tobacco amounts to about HRK 90 million and tobacco is one of the rare agricultural cultures with which Croatia has high competitiveness and a significant production at the EU level, given that Croatia produces about 5% of the EU's total tobacco production.

President of the management board at Hrvatski Duhani Imad Ud-Din Muhammad said that the company was one of the first to introduce sustainability in agriculture in Croatia, which has now been strengthened at the BAT Group level.

We are additionally strengthening investments in environmental protection, health and safety within the entire supply chain, he underscored.

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