May the 5th, 2022 - Three large Croatian egg farms have collapsed and their management has stated that they plan to remain open and in function only until the end of this week.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian poultry and egg producers are currently navigating troubled waters. Just as they announced before Easter, some are closing down their farms because their production costs have become too high to be able to cope with.

RTL discovered that three large Croatian egg farms are set to shut their doors, and the producers have also been complaining that the traders must be deaf and are offering them purchase prices which are much too low, even though the eggs on the shelves have never been more expensive.

This concerning information was also confirmed by the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture. The president of the chamber, Mladen Jakopovic, said: “two or thee are closing, we found out about that informally. Two or three Croatian egg farms will shut. According to our information, that would amount to about five percent of Croatian egg production at this time.''

There is almost no egg producer who isn't facing trouble at this moment in time, and they are thinking about reducing production entirely because the current situation is becoming unbearable.

Magi Lukac, the head of one egg production company, pointed out that the costs are growing every day. “We just managed to raise the prices a bit, and now we've had a new blow with new costs that don't follow the selling prices. We have information that many poultry farmers are going to reduce their capacities,'' he said.

The Republic of Croatia is almost self-sufficient when it comes to egg production, but after the coronavirus pandemic, inflation and the situation with the war in Ukraine, the prices of cereals and energy have skyrocketed, and they complain that traders are not giving them a higher purchase price despite that.

"The price of wheat and corn have grown by 200 percent, soybeans and sunflower meal have gone up by 100 percent, and eggs aren't following that growth. I'm afraid that we will be needing to feed tourists with foreign eggs this year,'' Lukac pointed out for RTL.

The competent ministry says they are preparing additional incentives in order to try to soften the blow being dealt to Croatian egg farms, as well as to businesses directly related to the industry.

Zdravko Barac, the director of the Directorate for Animal Husbandry and Food Quality of the Ministry of Agriculture, said: “Of course we won't allow a shortage of eggs to occur, nor will we allow that for other livestock products. We reacted with a whole series of measures in a difficult period two years ago.''

Five million kuna is intended for poultry farmers, and 2 million kuna for egg producers, and on top of that, some more good news is coming from Brussels.

Mladen Jakopovic, President of the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture, pointed out: “It has been agreed that the import of wheat and other cereals into the European Union would be exempt from anyone needing to pay customs duties and associated customs costs. That is 20 million tonnes, which is 20 times more than Croatia's total annual production.''

This temporary measure should take effect in two weeks, but whether or not it will be enough to prevent the locking of the doors of more Croatian egg farms is yet to be seen.

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