December the 19th, 2020 - The pandemic has showcased just how heavily we need to turn towards homegrown produce, and one brand new Croatian food store, Crotaste, opened its doors in the very heart of Zagreb to promote domestic products and local OPGs.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, the Crotaste Croatian Food House was opened in the centre of Zagreb in Cesarceva street on Friday. It is a promotional and sales centre whose goal is to provide small and medium-sized Croatian producers from all over the country a place to promote and sell their local products.

Crotaste will boast a very wide range of domestic products, and products with European quality labels have an advantage when it comes to marketing. As Krunoslav Dugalic, the director of the Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food (HAPIH) explained, with this move, they enabled everyone who has outgrown doorstep sales far easier placement, and products will rotate, there will be county by county promotion, all in line with the ultimate goal of connecting Green (continental) and Blue (Adriatic) Croatia. Currently, the number of items being sold at Crotaste stands at more than 200 and they come from about a hundred family farms from all parts of the country.

Crotaste's shelves include Slavonian kulen, Dalmatian and Istrian prosciutto, GMO free eggs, asparagus, wine and many other high-quality Croatian products, from olive oil to Pag cheese, arancino and fish from the Adriatic, which the capital's residents will be able to buy for everyday consumption, as will tourists.

"Everything offered here is original and healthy, and this is just one of the pieces of the mosaic in creating a better Croatia, a better Slavonia," said Bozo Galic, Vukovar-Srijem County Prefect, and Minister Mario Banozic agreed with him. Slavonia can certainly be a generator of agricultural production. He also mentioned that he hopes that soon, the trade situation will be more favourable and that Croatian products will be on the tables of EU countries.

"Croatian agriculture is vulnerable, but we're slowly changing that. This year, we've achieved the highest growth in ten years in terms of both productivity and sales, and we'll continue to help domestic producers with measures. Agricultural food production is the future, and projects like this will be even more present. We're a small country, and we can boast of as many as 28 products with European quality labels,'' said the Minister of Agriculture Marija Vuckovic, who asked people to buy local during this festive season.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

ZAGREB, Dec 18, 2020 - The Crotaste House of Croatian Food, a promotional-sales outlet with a wide range of domestic products from all around Croatia, opened in downtown Zagreb on Friday, offering 220 various products from over 100 producers.

Crotaste, located near Europe House in the city's centre, offers a wide range of domestic products including Slavonian salami, Dalmatian prosciutto, GMO-free eggs, asparagus, wine, olive oil, Pag cheese and fish from the Adriatic.

The project is the result of cooperation between the Croatian Agriculture and Food Agency (HAPIH), the Agro-Klaster company from Vukovar-Srijem County, the Ministry of Agriculture and Vukovar-Srijem County.

"Our aim is to secure a place for SMEs from all over Croatia to promote and sell their products with the European quality label in the centre of the capital city, which is particularly important during these difficult times of the corona crisis," HAPIH director Krunoslav Dugalic said ahead of the official opening.

Opening the Crotaste House, Agriculture Minister Marija Vuckovic underscored that this is finally the realisation of the idea of connecting Croatia's blue and green regions.

"Croatia's agriculture and food industry is continuing to work and develop during these difficult times. We are managing to make some structural changes, and despite everything we have registered growth in agriculture and the food industry of a net 5% in production, and 10% in productivity compared to last year, which is an excellent result." Vuckovic said.

She said this was possible in part due to the government's jobkeeping measures, adding that EU funds helped boost agricultural development as well as other sectors such as fishing, the wood industry, and wine production for which COVID loans from the HAMAG agency for SMEs can be expected.

"We have secured HRK 360 million in income support for farmers who experienced a fall of 15% and many of them are wine producers," she said, adding that despite travel passes being introduced, farmers will be allowed to work as they did during the spring lockdown.