February the 20th, 2022 - Selection MM, a very well known Croatian luxury food importer owned Marijo Mendek, has unfortunately entered pre-bankruptcy proceedings.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Commercial Court in Zagreb has opened the pre-bankruptcy proceedings of Marijo Mendek's company Selection MM, known as the most famous Croatian luxury food importer and premium wines. The move was initiated at Mendek's own request due to "threats of insolvency" as well as blocked accounts and an established debt of about 219,000 kuna.

In his own proposal, Mendek also listed the assets owned by MM Selection, which also includes the MM building in Ilica in Zagreb's Kustosija, three Citroen delivery vehicles and a mini cooper one. He has also listed the claims of MM Selection against almost 70 debtors which amounts to a massive 1.77 million kuna.

Among them are companies associated with Marijo Mendek, but also companies through which some of the top Croatian restaurants are run, such as Baltazar restoran d.o.o, Barbieris restaurants d.o.o. and Esplanade Oleander d.o.o. It is interesting to point out that Mendek's list of debtors also includes the Ministry of Finance, from which he is demanding slightly more than 48,000 kuna.

The most famous Croatian luxury food importer was otherwise founded back in 2010 with a 4.1 million kuna of share capital and is based in Zagreb's Ilica, and Mendek is listed in the court register as its sole founder and director. As a guest of gastro and lifestyle sections of various Croatian media portals, Mendek often pointed out that his story with food started back in the late eighties in Munich, Germany, where he worked for years in a two-Michelin-star restaurant.

“It was there that I first encountered premium products like caviar, foie gras etc and have been hopelessly in love with food ever since. At that time, I had no idea to what extent my love for food would mark my life,'' Mendes pointed out.

He added that he started the MM Selection upon his return home to Croatia, all with the aim of transmitting to Croatia everything he learned about high-end gastronomy and offering the domestic market "quality food from around the world". Following that, he became one of the largest importers and distributors of world-famous food brands, delicacies and premium wines from across the globe.

Mendek appeared on the Croatian hospitality scene some 25 years ago, and he was the very first to import top Bordeaux wines to Croatia, and his company Kult Dioniza, which no longer exists, once held the best classic foreign wines in all of Croatia, according to the Plava kamenica website.

They added that Mendek's wine business went bankrupt in the middle of the first decade of this century. After that, he switched to operating as a Croatian luxury food importer, and his first big client was Zagreb's famed Esplanade. Among other things, Mendek, according to media reports, imports French oysters, real caviar, Japanese beef, Sicilian gambero rosso and Spanish bluefin tuna.

For more, check out our business section.

February the 16th, 2022 - The Zagreb company Altpro has spent time ''conquering'' India over recent years, and now it has entered the Egyptian market with its work on an extremely important motorail transport connection.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the Zagreb company Altpro is currently working on a monorail transport connection between Cairo and two new satellite cities, one of which will become the country's new capital.

Namely, as Tin Viduka, a member of the Management Board of Altpro in charge of sales and marketing, explained, this is one of this company's biggest projects, which they entered into with their long-term global partners - Bombardier and Alstom. Although they aren't currently allowed to talk about the financial aspects of it all due to the confidentiality of the contract, they emphasise that this is a significant and very far-reaching project.

"This project is very important to us because, in addition to entering a new market with great potential, it involves a new technology that we've been developing for a long time now. In this business, we participate with signaling systems for infrastructure that guarantee high reliability and improved security. Our axle counting systems for single-track rails are currently unique in the field of control and detection of non-standard train types. Speed sensors, direction sensors and the position of single-track trains exchange this vital information with other infrastructure subsystems,'' said Viduka, the son of the founder and CEO of the Zagreb company Altpro, Zvonimir Viduka.

The company explained that there are two monorail lines in Egypt, spanning a total length of about a hundred kilometres.

The first of them, spanning 54 kilometres, will connect eastern Cairo with the new administrative capital, currently called the "New Capital City" and should have almost seven million inhabitants living in it, and the second line of 42 kilometres will connect the Cairo suburb of Giza with a new city officially named the "6th of October City ”.

This somewhat unusual name for the city, which already boasts about half a million inhabitants, is actually named in memory of October the 6th, 1973, when the 4th Arab-Israeli War, better known as the Yom Kippur War or the Ramadan War, began. It was an armed conflict fought from the 6th to the 25th of October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria.

Egypt stood out during the conflict, as, instead of sending in soldiers and tanks, it put water engineers in the forefront and occupied Suez and the whole of Sinai. 

However, due to unrealistic changes in the plans which almost did succeed in bringing Israel to its knees, the whole campaign collapsed and Israel surrounded and destroyed the Arab forces, coming in tanks in front of Cairo and Damascus, which resulted in US and USSR involvement in the crisis.

However, October the 6th remains a big date and Armed Forces Day in Egypt today. Both lines are expected to open in 2023 and will be able to carry about 45,000 passengers per hour in each direction.

Travel time will be significantly reduced to about 60 minutes for the first line and about 42 minutes for the second. The Cairo Monorail will use 70 fully automated Bombardier INNOVIA Monorail 300 trains, ie ones without a train driver, which will be produced in Derby, England.

Business for the Zagreb company Altpro in Los Angeles

The Zagreb company Altpro's impressive reference list also includes a project at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). It involves the delivery of a control system for the APM (Automatic People Mover) train used to transport passengers within the airport itself. The delivery currently includes state-of-the-art technology for the management and detection of trains of specific dimensions and requirements.

Although the financial results for last year are not yet known, the company states that 2021 was a record year for them and that they expect double-digit revenue growth compared to the previous record year od pandemic-dominated 2020, when they achieved about 70 million kuna in revenue.

"We have three big projects and a number of smaller ones under our belts, and we expect double digit growth this year as well. Along with India and now Egypt, after a long lull, the Croatian railway market has finally opened up again. A lot is being invested in infrastructure and new railway vehicles. We're mostly engaged in the section of the Krizevci-Koprivnica-Hungarian border railway, and where we're actually a system integrator with consortium partners - we produce, deliver and install the equipment. We expect that this growth of the Croatian market will continue in the next period as well,'' believes Viduka.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

February the 7th, 2022 - Former Deputy Prime Minister Martina Dalic, also a Croatian economist, is set to remain at Podravka's helm.

As Jutarnji list/Novac writes, on Friday last week, Podravka's Supervisory Board appointed a new Management Board, which will continue to be headed by Martina Dalic for the next five-year term. Davor Doko and Ljiljana Sapina will also remain on the Management Board, while new members are Milan Tadic and Ivan Ostojic.

According to the announcement, the five-year term of the new Management Board of Podravka begins on February the 24th, 2022.

Martina Dalic, who was appointed to this position on February the 4th, 2021, will therefore remain in the position of President of the Management Board. With this recent decision, the Supervisory Board confirmed its satisfaction with the work and the results achieved under Dalic, entrusting her with running the company throughout the next, full term.

Along with Martina Dalic, members of the Management Board who are set to remain are Davor Doko and Ljiljana Sapina, who were first appointed back in February 2017, and as new members it includes Milan Tadic, Podravka's General Manager for the Adria Region, and Ivan Ostojic, who comes from Wustenrot. Ostojic is also a member of Podravka's Supervisory Board and his term in the Management Board will begin on July the 1st, 2022, Podravka's statement said.

Podravka also pointed out that the Supervisory Board thanked the current members - Marko Djerek and Hrvoje Kolaric for their contribution to Podravka through their membership in the Management Board of the company.

Marko Djerek is now a member of the Belupo Management Board, which continues to be led by Hrvoje Kolaric, according to Podravka's statement.

As the President of the Supervisory Board, Zelimir Vukina stated: "The fact that we've completed the election process and decided on the composition of the new Management Board almost a month before the current Management Board's term is set to begin is the result of the Supervisory Board's focus on continuously improving the quality of corporate governance and approaching global standards for Podravka's size and complexity.''

Congratulating the President and the appointed members of the Management Board, he said that they expect the new Management Board to achieve the goals of the strategic plan for the next five years and especially the further growth of the company, both organically and through acquisitions.

''We expect the intensification of investments in raising the overall technological level of production processes as a prerequisite for greater innovation and maintaining high product quality, the motivation and loyalty of our employees and a contribution to increasing the quality of life in the local community, all of which will be the best indicators of the success of the new Management Board,'' said Vukina.

Martina Dalic stated that the opportunity to lead Podravka together with her colleagues from the new Management Board is understood as an expression of trust placed in her over the next five years, but in the same way as it did a year ago, for her, it represents an "extremely great responsibility".

"It's my responsibility to achieve Podravka's success on the global market and increase value for shareholders, and it's also to improve things for the local community through the continuous improvement of the position and satisfaction of all our employees. Podravka is a Croatian multinational company whose heart is and will always be in Koprivnica. I expect the Management Board to function as a team, focused solely on the growth and development of Podravka through dedicated and determined implementation of the development and investment cycle that we started in recent months,'' said Martina Dalic, who then thanked the members of the Supervisory Board and all shareholders for their trust in her.

It's worth noting that the largest shareholders of Podravka are Croatian pension funds (mandatory and voluntary) which together hold 51.1 percent of Podravka's shares, while the state has 25.5 percent of Podravka's shares.

For more, check out our business section.

February the 5th, 2022 - The Pozega company Plamen has recorded some extremely encouraging results, mostly related to exports, despite these continually challenging times. More controversially, it decided to reward its employees for getting vaccinated against the novel coronavirus by providing monetary bonuses.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, according to the company's procurator Vinko Matijevic, the Pozega company Plamen generated a massive 280.6 million kuna in revenue last year, which is an increase of as much as 67 percent when compared to the previous year. Net profit amounted to 49 million kuna and was 70 percent higher, Radio Vallis Aurea wrote on Thursday.

Exports amounted to an impressive 246.7 million kuna and increased by 72 percent. The number of workers increased by a fifth during the year, or about 70 more than the previous year. Today, about 420 people work for Plamen. But that's not all: the average net income is around 8,200 kuna per month, which is a growth of 15 percent, and the minimum monthly wage provided by this company is 6,542 kuna.

It's worth noting that the Pozega company Plamen is a highly successful and well established company that exports almost 90 percent of its cast iron products, and is also known for its fireplaces, stoves and other metal products used for similar purposes, reports Danica.

The Pozega-based company recently came into the public spotlight after the director invited all of its unvaccinated workers to apply for vaccination against the novel coronavirus, as well as for those who need to receive a third dose to do the same. If they do so and get vaccinated or boosted, they receive about 340 kuna net on their January salaries.

If they don't get vaccinated, as of February the 1st this year, they will no longer receive salary incentives in the amount of 400 kuna gross per month, nor will they be included in the distribution of the company's issuance of a 13th salary. In addition to that, unvaccinated Plamen employees will not be able to perform managerial functions within the company, the director wrote on the company's bulletin board. It is not known if his call met with a response from workers.

For more, check out our business section.

February the 4th, 2022 - The Osijek company Orqa has begun developing no less than a chip design ecosystem right here in Croatia. Namely, Orqa, Osijek's FERIT and Zagreb's FER signed an agreement on cooperation in the project of designing a specialised chip for unmanned systems.

Complex chip design such as this hasn't existed in the Republic of Croatia so far, and it is on the basis of an initiative through which the rapidly-growing Osijek company Orqa d.o.o. further seeks to advance first-person (FPV) and remote reality (RR) technologies.

The goal of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Orqa, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Information Technology in Osijek and Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, is the joint work of experts, engineers and academia on research and development of technologies of strategic importance for digital and a more resilient European Union (EU).

As such, for the implementation of this initiative, the signatories of the Agreement will also promote a key strategic instrument for the implementation of the EU industrial strategy - Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI).

“We intend to design a chip specialising in unmanned systems such as drones, vehicles or vessels, with the ability to upgrade to autonomous functionalities. This extremely complex project is the first project of this type in all of Croatia, we're among the first in the world, and currently there aren't enough engineering capacities for such a design.

Although this sort of staff is currently lacking here in Croatia, through this project we're trying to build capacities and train engineers in order to start the development of the chip design ecosystem in Croatia in accordance with global trends. Cooperation with faculties as staff generators plays a key role in this. Through this project, we intend to achieve a symbiosis of commercial needs on the one hand, and academic knowledge and research on the other. In addition to the aforementioned faculties, the support of the Ministry of Regional Development and EU funds is extremely important for us in order to pave the way for the further development of this attractive industry,'' said Srdjan Kovacevic, co-owner and CEO of the Osijek company Orqa. 

As a world leader in the development of video glasses for drone pilots and as a leading regional company in the drone industry, Orqa is rightly considered a leader in Croatian modern technology and innovation. This isn't a surprisie at all when one considers the research, development, and prototyping of devices in the field of first-person view (FPV) technology, remote reality (RR), video signal transmission and radio communication, and the production of electronic components and devices the company engages in - the most famous of which are video goggles for FPV drone pilots. Collaboration with STEM studios is a great opportunity both for young engineering hopefuls and for the entire technology sector. The signed Agreement is unique on the territory of the Republic of Croatia, and with it the City of Osijek and Osijek-Baranja County will be more strongly positioned in the demanding IT world.

"This agreement will further strengthen the cooperation between the two leading Croatian faculties in the field of chip design, to which the Osijek company Orqa is adding additional value. Here in Croatia, the development of the semiconductor industry is lagging behind other branches of electrical engineering, and the planned scientific research activities in cooperation with the economy will represent a significant step towards the development of microelectronics in this country. The implementation of scientific research will ensure the transfer of the latest knowledge in the economy, but also in study programmes, which will provide domestic students with additional competencies necessary for the labour market in this area,'' said Tomislav Matic, the Dean of FERIT.

In addition to FERIT, the great potential of the Osijek company Orqa was also recognised by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing from Zagreb, which has long been positioned as one of the leading Croatian educational institutions in the STEM field.

"FER is committed to an economy based on knowledge, innovation and openness to global talent. The strength of any economy lies in the high-tech sector whose progress and competitiveness is impossible without knowledge and scientific research where the academic community plays an extremely important role. This agreement created the basis for the further development of Croatian competencies in the field of chip design and verification. The agreement is also key to connecting the Croatian academic community and the Croatian economy with major European players in the semiconductor industry and ultimately creating a consortium to apply under the Important Common European Interest (VPZEI) mechanism,'' said Gordan Gledec, FER's Dean.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

February the 3rd, 2022 - The Osijek company Future Machines is launching a brand new and innovative vehicle called ''Taurus'' as part of a production project focused on organic and home food production.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, the Osijek company Future Machines project is aimed primarily at encouraging agricultural production with an emphasis on organic and own food production. With it, they're investing in a new factory and not only continuing the production tradition of the failed Osijek OLT, but going a step further.

Future Machines is the largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery in Osijek and is a family company owned by Darko and Matija Markovic. With its first investment in the purchase of the now bankrupt OLT plant and technology, the Osijek company Future Machines took over almost the entire programme of agricultural machinery of the failed company and today works mostly for the domestic market, while income from abroad ranges from 10-15 percent, most of which is from exports to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to director Matija Markovic, in its sixth year of existence, this company has regained the part of the market in which OLT used to be strongly present.

"I'm glad that people recognise us more and more and that we're more and more present every year on the market in which there is a lot of competition from foreign mechanisation today," says Markovic. Since they're the only company in all of Croatia that produces pneumatic seed drills - the most complex agricultural machine with about 1000 positions and assemblies, most of their revenue comes from this product.

Through this new phase of development, investments in new plants are being made, with a total estimated value of 5 million kuna, and at the same time the innovative Taurus project is being completed, whose test production is already underway.

“The goal of the project is to enable the wider population to engage in agriculture, ie growing food in their own gardens through the simple application of machines and technological maps. In this way, but also through continuous improvements of the machine, our goal is to encourage agricultural production with an emphasis placed on organic and on the production of our own, domestic food, both for our own needs and for commercial purposes,'' explained Markovic.

The Osijek company Future Machines innovative new ''Taurus'' is designed as a vehicle of smaller proportions with an associated modular assembly to which tools or tillage attachments are attached, which are also being developed as part of the project.

These are 18 attachments, such as a plough, a mechanical and pneumatic seed drill, a cultivator, a fertiliser spreader and the like. Along with the machine itself, a technological map is being developed, and it consists of instructions for the production of vegetable crops with the simple use of a universal machine.

Instructions for the use of the machine would include about 30 vegetable crops with the attached technological map and the organisation of growing space, with an emphasis on organic production. The innovative element is precisely the modularity of the machine and the concept of use with the technological map, which is something new in Croatia and beyond.

“We could say that it's a hybrid between motor cultivators and smaller tractors, and it's based on modularity. Similar projects have been developed in the last century, but for some reason this has not come to life in any sort of wider application. That's why we're present the machine in a retro style,'' stated Markovic.

In addition to the company's professional staff, external experts in the field of design, marketing, agronomy, as well as the Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences in Osijek and TERA Tehnopolis, which deals with the promotion of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, ie connecting science and economy, are also important.

The Taurus project is in the final phase of the Osijek company Future Machines project, the production of a zero series of 8 machines is being completed, and as it is a prototype, they plan to place the zero series with special conditions through partners dealing with agriculture and forestry.

If all goes according to plan, they expect that serial production of Taurus will begin in 2023, after which they'll also announce new employment and work on further development of the concept for the agricultural programme, as well as further adaptation to use the machine for communal purposes.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

February the 1st, 2022 - The Croatian company Agrivi is set to take to the demanding and much sought after American market, according to founder Matija Zulj.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, founder and CEO of the Croatian company Agrivi Matija Zulj said that he's happy to announce the opening of Agrivi's office in the United States, where the highly experienced industry leader Bob Westbrook will work on their team as the sales manager. The Croatian company Agrivi, an agrotech company, has otherwise had its eye on the market of the USA for a considerable amount of time.

So far, they have already collaborated with the American company Driscoll’s, the largest berry producer in the world, and this will be Agrivi's fifth office after the ones they have in Zagreb, London, Bucharest and Warsaw.

Zulj pointed out that their US office wants to provide even greater value to its existing customers on the US market and thus remain a favorite digital partner in agriculture to large US and global agricultural and food companies in the transformation of agricultural production.

In addition to all of the above, they want to strengthen their market position as a global leader in software solutions for the digitalisation of agriculture. Namely, their software is among the top ten solutions in the agrotech industry in the world and among the top three in Europe.

It is estimated that the social impact of the Croatian company Agrivi directly and indirectly reaches more than 100 million people, and users from all over the world use Agrivi's solutions to optimise their agricultural production or the production of subcontractors.

There is a growing interest from investors on top of all of that as well. Around one month ago, the Feelsgood fund announced that it was investing 5.6 million kuna in Agrivi. This closed the funding cycle that began back in 2020.

The Croatian company Agrivi already has two open positions across the pond in the United States - for Executive Director of International Sales and Customer Success Manager.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

January the 28th, 2022 - Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac's company, Project 3 Mobility, is planning a new project and requires quite a considerable amount of new staff for that. Project 3 Mobility is, as such, planning further employment in the near future.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, while Rimac and Porsche continue to develop their electric hypercar, as well as plans to develop the automotive giant Bugatti in the direction of electrification - his other large company, Project 3 Mobility, was founded for a controversial robotics taxi development project in Zagreb backed by the European Union (EU) this year. It could create a significant number of new jobs.

This was revealed by the Project 3 Mobility company's co-founder and director of operations Marko Pejkovic, according to a report from Poslovni Puls.

“I know that the year 2024 sounds unrealistic for launching something like this, but so did the current status when we launched Project 3 Mobility two years ago. Aside from a few short answers given by Mate, we don’t want to talk or reveal too much about the details of what we’re doing until it’s ready. Not because we have something to hide, but because very soon after the presentation, you'll be able to try out the service yourself, and not wait for two or three years. Firstly in Zagreb before the end of 2024, and then across many other cities in the world. Our team will grow from the current 80 people to 230 by the end of the year. Those people will be mostly from Croatia.''

"We're publishing the positions here and also soon on the new website. If doing things that most people might find impossible is something that motivates you, consider applying for a job. We don't offer table football or the use of a Playstation, but the opportunity to fundamentally improve a 100-year-old industry and the way in which we move and live,'' Pejkovic announced on his Linkedin profile.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

January the 23rd, 2022 - Croatian bus carriers are facing serious issues once again after being severely damaged by the global coronavirus crisis, restrictions placed on travel and a lack of state aid.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, due to the spread of coronavirus and the large increase in the number of people infected with it, an increasing number of schools across the Republic of Croatia are switching to distance learning (the so-called Model C), which puts Croatian bus carriers in an awkward position with major problems with their student transport contracts. This came as a warning from the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP), which pointed out the illogicality and non-functioning of contracts for the bus transport of students.

HUP explained that many Croatian bus carriers have contracted the transport of students for 180 days per year, but due to the closure of schools in some areas they were left without what was contracted and lost all of the income that was promised with it.

"We understand the reasons why schools switched to distance learning, but for us it means that the buses run empty or are forced to stop running completely. Of course, fixed costs such as utilities, fuel, leasing and the payment of wages to workers and drivers remain the same every month, regardless of which model the school we drive for decides to operate with. That's why it is fair to recognise that there is 'force majeure' in these contracts and to pay carriers at least the cost of a cold drive worth 50 percent of the agreed amount during which students have distance learning,'' said Damir Pavlovic from HUP, adding that otherwise the so-called model A will not mean the return of students to schools because there will be no one to transport them when the epidemiological situation finally does calm down.

''Most Croatian bus carriers won’t be able to cope with this''

HUP also made sure to note that the criteria and the way of co-financing the costs of public transport for the country's high school students are based on a government decision from back in 2018, long before the pandemic struck, where the calculation was based on the price of ordinary Eurodiesel, which then amounted to 8.37 kuna. Today, the prices of basic Eurodiesel start at a significantly higher 11.29 kuna, which is an increase of 35 percent, and fuel is a key input cost that largely defines the business of Croatian bus carriers.

"Due to the coronavirus crisis, bus transport is one of the most endangered industries because any spread of the infection reduces the number of regular passengers we transport. The epidemic has obviously entered its critical phase and we're asking the state to please try to adapt to these new circumstances. If we don't recognise the costs of cold storage for student transport and if we don't introduce the appropriate measures to preserve jobs, everything that has been done well so far will mean nothing, and take down the vast majority of bus operators who won't be able to withstand this pressure with it,'' concluded Pavlovic.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

January the 20th, 2022 - Most companies and individuals still haven't taken out Croatian natural disaster insurance despite the devastating events of 2020 which saw both the capital and Sisak-Moslavina County in Central Croatia rocked by strong earthquakes.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tomislav Pili writes, despite the record amounts of premiums written out last year, the Croatian insurance sector has warned that a large number of residents, companies and the economy are still exposed to uninsured risks, especially those posed by natural disasters. As the Croatian Insurance Bureau (HUO) announced recently, the gross written premium of Croatian insurers last year reached 11.7 billion kuna, which is a significant increase of 11.86 percent when compared to the previous year.

In the non-life insurance segment, total premiums increased by 672 million kuna or 9.15 percent when compared to the previous year, while in the life insurance segment, gross written premiums increased by 8.24 percent annually, reaching 2.9 billion kuna.

"As such, with the great resilience shown by insurance companies in these extremely unstable times over the past couple of years, their stable and secure operations continued and they continued to offer strong support to people through rapid two-way communication and the payment of damages without delay even in extraordinary conditions," they said from HUO.

However, the stable contribution of insurers would be even more significant if a larger number of people had contracted some form of adequate insurance coverage, including Croatian natural disaster insurance such as that issued for earthquakes, according to the umbrella organisation of insurers. Despite the fact that the insurance market in the country is still continuing to develop, ranking third in the Croatian financial market, behind banks and mandatory pension funds, and although slight growth has been achieved, Croatia still lags significantly behind more developed countries.

"The average insurance premium per capita in Croatia last year amounted to 399 euros, while the average at the EU level stood at 2,085 euros. For example, the average insurance premium in the life insurance segment in the EU is 1163 euros, and in Croatia it's 99 euros, in the health insurance segment in the EU it reaches 248 euros, in Croatia it's only 24 euros, while in the property protection segment in the EU it is 178 euros, and in Croatia it's 59 euros, which is a consequence of a lower standard of living, but also people's poorer financial literacy,'' they claimed from HUO.

Citizen awareness

The devastating earthquakes of 2020 raised people's level of awareness, and 2021 was marked by an increase in the number of people taking out earthquake insurance, by an additional 43.4 percent in comparison to 2020.

"In the past couple of years, insurers have paid out 541 million kuna in damages, which is less than half a percent of the total damage caused by the 2020 earthquakes, which clearly indicates that the penetration of this type of insurance is still very low compared to developed markets. The Croatian Insurance Bureau (HUO) would like to warn the public that despite the two-year increase, the number of earthquake insurance policies, especially the insurance of residential buildings, is still relatively low throughout Croatia, which is especially significant in light of the fact that Croatia, along with Greece, Turkey, Macedonia and Italy, lies in the most tectonicically risky area in Europe,'' the statement said.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.