ZAGREB, 14 April, 2021 - The National Recovery and Resilience Plan calls for extremely transparent criteria for selecting projects and contractors, as well as defining criteria which will protect the domestic economy, the Croatian Exporters Association said on Wednesday.

One of the priorities is for hundreds of thousands of young expats to return to Croatia, the association underscored.

Croatian Exporters said that they welcomed the 2021-2026 draft national plan, aimed at strengthening economic and social resilience of the Croatia economy, that is, "mitigating the social and economic impacts of the crisis and contributing to the green and digital transition", because many of the recommendations and requests they had been sending to the government in recent years had been partially taken into account.

However, they warn that there are some questions and doubts about the planned allocation of funds for the national plan's components, 54% of which should be earmarked for the economy.

"Have key performance indicators been defined, analyses conducted and effects of planned projects on long-term sustainable and harmonised growth and development of Croatia quantified? (...) Planned investments covered by the National Plan will certainly increased Croatia's GDP in the next six to eight years, but we doubt whether it will increase the long-term GDP growth rate," Croatian Exporters said in the review they sent to the government.

They are also under the impression that the domestic production and export processing industry has been neglected in the national plan.

"Digitalisation and the green economy... won't be sufficient drivers for a big step forward in the development and progress of the domestic industry. At the same time... projects aimed at infrastructure, energy, construction and tourism won't contribute to a significant improvement in the poor structure of the Croatian economy," the exporters' association said.

They also consider that it is necessary to define criteria that will protect the domestic economy.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

December 19, 2020 – A surprising success story in a difficult year as Croatia agriculture and food exports jump in 2020, while imports of the same have fallen

Good news from any place is welcome in this most difficult of years. According to provisional data from the country's Central Bureau of Statistics, the total value of Croatia agriculture and food exports in the period from January to September 2020 amounted to 1.7 billion Euros, an increase of 5 percent from the same period in 2019. Within the same period, the value of agricultural and food imports into Croatia was 2.5 billion Euros, a decline of 7.3 percent from last year.

The success of Croatia agriculture and food exports in the period means that the country's trade deficit has decreased by huge 26.6 percent compared to the same period last year. With this year's findings taken into account, the trade deficit now stands at 758.8 million Euros.

© Romulić & Stojčić

Croatia agriculture and food exports covered 69 percent of total imports this year, an increase of 8.11 percent. A total of 15.86 percent of all exports from the country come from the Croatia agriculture and food exports sector.

The most important item of production within the sector is corn, which accounts for 5.4 percent of all Croatia agriculture and food exports.

From January to September 2020, the most significant products in exports were: cereals (205.4 million Euros – a growth of a huge 62.6 million Euros); various food products (168.1 million Euros – including manufactured/processed foods like sauces, soups, ice cream, sugar products); fish and other seafood (a huge 147.4 million Euros – showing a growth of 14.5 million Euros); cereals, flour, starch or milk products; confectionery products, including chocolate (135.9 million Euros – a growth of 13.8 million Euros), and tobacco-related products (122.6 million Euros). TCN recently took a closer look at the successful and well-established Croatian chocolate industry

Other successes within 2020 Croatia agriculture and food exports were live animals, with an increase of 10.1 million Euros, and the residue and waste of the food industry, which is exported to go into prepared animal foods. The latter saw an increase of 8.6 million Euros.

So far this year, Italy was one of the most important destinations for Croatia agriculture and food exports. Their total consumption of Croatia agriculture and food exports was 300.8 million Euros, which amounts to 17.76 percent of Croatia's exports in the sector. Croatia agriculture and food exports to Italy increased by 21.9 percent this year, while imports from Italy to Croatia in the same period was 263 million Euros, a decrease of 16.6 percent on 2019. This creates a surplus of 37.6 million Euros.

The most important Croatia agriculture and food exports to Italy are maize, wheat and soybeans, tobacco-related products, sea bass (brancin) and bream (orada).

For the last five years, Croatia agriculture and food exports top consumer has been Germany. For the past seven years, Germany has also been the country from which Croatia has imported the most.

As Novac/Jozo Vrdoljak/Privredni writes on the 3rd of August, 2020, the Rasco factory in Kalinovac has produced the 300th Muvo vehicle, a multifunctional utility carrier for the maintenance of urban areas, fully designed and manufactured in Croatia.

Muvo vehicles are currently cleaning and maintaining more than thirty major Croatian cities, including gorgeous coastal destinations. The vehicle is also present in almost all of Europe, as well as in Asia and even as far away as Australia.

The idea of ​​adopting the production of a small universal utility vehicle was born back in 2008, and is the result of the thoughts of two owners and the then members of the board, Frane Franičević and Darko Paviša, on how to ensure the growth of Rasco's revenue in the future.

Although the Muvo vehicle development project started during the global economic crisis, Rasco's director Darko Paviša says that at that time, both he and Frane Franičević accepted the crisis as a challenge and during its hold on the world, began with the construction and production of new types of machines. They also worked on expanding the company's production programme, so that after the end of the crisis, they could take even better positions in the market.

"We weren't satisfied with the representation of our products from utility companies. We've started to produce machines in smaller dimensions, so that they can be installed on small tractors or small utility vehicles that most often maintain the centres of cities and municipalities. We quickly realised that we needed a complete package to enter this market: both a propulsion vehicle and maintenance connections. Back in 2008, small universal utility vehicles were produced by only a few manufacturers in Europe, and in relatively small batches. We recognised this opportunity and started developing the concept, which is today's Muvo vehicle,'' Paviša pointed out.

The conceptual concept of the vehicle and the project task were created by Frane Franičević, and the project lasted for four years. The first Muvo was presented back in 2012 at the IFAT trade fair in Munich, Germany, and aroused a lot of interest among customers and visitors. Serial production started in 2013, and most of the first copies were sold here in Croatia, in order to obtain quality information on the behaviour of the machine in real working conditions and to provide efficient and fast service support.

"Muvo has combined excellent work performance, multifunctionality and quality. Our customers get a compact cleaner, a winter service vehicle, a mowing vehicle, a plant and park watering machine, a lifting platform and much more in one vehicle by changing the attachments. Muvo is constantly undergoing improvements, in line with user comments and market needs. Today, almost eight years after the start of production, we stand by the side of global manufacturers,'' explained Ivica Ivanic, technical director at Rasco.

With the help of a strategic partnership with German articulated utility vehicle manufacturer Max Holder, the company’s management began exporting Muvo vehicles back in 2015. The Muvo project was spun off into a separate company, Rasco Holder, which is 50 percent owned by Rasco and 50 percent owned by Germany's Max Holder. This step forward ensured Muvo's entry into the world market and played a major role in the impressive number of 300 vehicles sold.

"We achieved the goal we wanted: we entered the segment of communal maintenance in cities and smaller, local self-government units and very quickly established that there is still room for the expansion of this the offer to this group of clients. That's why soon after the successful placement of our Muvo vehicles, we started working on a new platform for the utility market: the compact Lynx cleaner,'' concluded Rasko's Darko Paviša.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

Is there a place for Croatian food on the competitive market of nearby Germany? It seems that yes, there is, and rich Croatian honey has already won the hearts of many German shoppers.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 1st of June, 2020, GoGreen, the brand of Croatia's largest agricultural cluster and the first domestic smart market until three years ago, was taken over and reactivated in mid-March by the Zagreb-based company Anytime Logistika. In the new business, GoGreen is only part of the business. The main focus is on logistics, wholesale and exports.

Anytime Logistika has just done its first job for Germany's largest retail chain, Edeka, which is 50 percent larger in Germany than Lidl and Kaufland combined and holds more than a fifth of the German market. Among other things, it placed Croatian food such as honey there. Alan Slapar, who started the GoGreen brand, and who is now working at Anytime Logistika on the development and digitalisation of domestic producers, says that Andrea Rukavina runs the business here in Croatia and Tomislav Hunic runs it over in Germany.

"The deal with Edeka was agreed upon by Tomislav Hunic, who lives and works in Germany, and who noted that all those there in the field, already present on the markets, find it easier to communicate with local procurement managers than even we from Croatia can,'' said Slapar. He added that he is already working on other customers because the market for Croatian food and agricultural products in Germany really does exist.

Here in Croatia, the company is working to strengthen its storage capacity. Anytime Logistika currently has a warehouse in Sesvetski Kraljevec of 140 square metres in a cooling mode from 2 ° C to 6 ° C. However, they are also building a new one which will span a significantly larger 750 square metres and in which there will be a deep-freeze cooling regime of -18 ° C and a temperature of 12 ° C.

"The warehouse will be equipped for the quick freezing and packaging of fresh and seasonal fruits, and there will also be a special system for washed and sliced ​​vegetables, such as already peeled and sliced ​​potatoes, zucchini spaghetti, salads and such things,'' explained Slapar.

They are also arranging warehouse and sales points in Zagreb and the surrounding area, but the emphasis is being placed primarily on wholesale. He stated that that is why they offered support to online stores, launched the HoReCa-Point sales channel for catering and decided on a precedent in Croatia. On the Anytime Logistika website, it will offer the possibility to order all products available in stock in real time.

"One of the basic problems in the distribution of agricultural products in Croatia is that producers don't even have a catalog of their products so that wholesale or retail customers can even come to find out what they actually have to offer. And if the customers don't know, then they won't even bother ordering,'' noted Slapar.

He stated that they are therefore working intensively on digitalisation with the Croatian producers they work with. Each manufacturer that enters their system also enters a catalog which they then offer on various markets depending on the product and their respective capacities. He pointed out that he wasn't surprised that doing business that way has intensified over the past two months and that family farms have taken an interest in GoGreen yet again.

"I don't attribute the interest so much to GoGreen as much as I do to the new chaos and hysteria, because Croatia hasn't invested in more creative ways of distribution for years, and with the arrival of the new coronavirus and isolation measures, it proved to be a big issue for all companies," explained Slapar.

Anytime Logistika currently has, he said, even better collaboration with larger manufacturers than it has with smaller ones. He explained that this is the result of a market shock.

"Because of these sudden market declines, now 'everything is possible'', ''everyone is good'' and there is potential in everything," Slapar concluded.

For more on Croatian food, produce and other products, follow Made in Croatia.

Everyone knows that fish and seafood in general makes up a huge part of the Croatian, particularly Dalmatian and Istrian diets. Fresh fish caught from the sparkling Adriatic sea paired with a domestic wine from grapes grown and harvested from local vineyards is nothing abnormal, but it seems that Croatian fish is becoming a big hit abroad as well as at home.

As Novac writes on the 6th of January, 2020, it would seem that Croatian fish is an increasingly popular delicacy abroad, far beyond not only Croatian and EU borders, as has been evidenced by impressive export figures.

More specifically, in the first eight months of 2019, the Republic of Croatia exported fresh or chilled bluefin tuna worth a massive 31.2 million euros (a whole 2,800 tonnes of it) outside of Croatia's borders, which is almost in the ranking of total exports in the year 2018 as a whole, reaching 33.9 million euros (or 3,000 tonnes in total).

The total exports of Croatian fish, crustaceans and molluscs back in 2018 amounted to an impressive 170.4 million euros (47,000 tonnes), of which fresh or chilled fish accounted for 108.2 million euros (21,000 tonnes in total).

In addition to tuna, which is a favourite in Japan, the largest exports to the European Union markets are fresh or chilled sea bass (26.4 million euros or 4.300 tonnes), sea bream (23.6 million euros or 3.800 tonnes) sardines (3.6 million euros or 4,500 tonnes) and anchovies (3.5 million euros or 2,200 tonnes).

This encouraging export data clearly shows that the international market recognides the very high quality of Croatian fish that comes from sustainable farming. This quality is promoted by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) through the project "The fish of Croatia - eat your worth", which aims to encourage citizens to consume fish as often as possible and thus contribute positively to not only this trend but to the development of the Croatian economy as a whole.

By the end of August 2019, Croatia had exported a massive 14,100 tonnes of fresh Croatian fish worth 82.6 million euros. The majority of Croatian aquaculture production is exported to the European Union (Italy, Slovenia, Spain) and as far away as Japan.

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