January 13, 2021 – In order to help family farmers from the earthquake-hit area, Zagreb City Online Market has recently included products from Banovina in its offer.

Family farms in Banovina, the area struck by the recent earthquake, are currently facing many challenges. With many damages to houses, the inhabitants of that part of Croatia who are engaged in food and beverage production must still ensure their livelihood. Help is more than needed, and in addition to already collected food donations and hygiene supplies, they will still need help to recover successfully.

To make family farms from Banovina even more visible, a large project, "Let's buy from Banija," was recently launched, encouraging people from Croatia to buy their products. Likewise, the City of Zagreb recently decided to help Banovina producers by including their products on its Online Market pages.

Namely, the City of Zagreb launched the Online Market application at the beginning of April 2020 to help domestic food and beverage producers to market their products. It is a platform that connects producers and buyers to promote local family farms that are struggling due to the coronavirus epidemic.

After the devastating earthquake that hit Petrinja, Sisak, Glina, and the surrounding towns, the City of Zagreb decided to include family farms from that area in the Zagreb City Online Market offer. All producers from Banovina received the heart label, and they can be found on the Zagreb City Online Market website.

Since April, the Zagreb City Online Market has been operating continuously, and the fact that customers have accepted the project is shown by the website's 60,000 visits per month.

"We invite all citizens to support our small producers from Banovina, as they constantly support Zagreb producers within the application Zagreb City Online Market," said the Zagreb City Administration.

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November 17, 2020 - To overcome the consequences of COVID-19, Osijek-Baranja County is supporting OPGs (family farms) and rural accommodations with an HRK 1 million grant. 

HRTurizam reports that Osijek-Baranja County thus awarded grants to representatives of 29 family farms and rural households that provide accommodation services in Osijek-Baranja County.

This is a category of business entities that are not covered by measures from the state budget to overcome the coronavirus epidemic's consequences. As the tourism sector is among the most endangered activities, Osijek-Baranja County approved financial support from its budget.

Support for individual family farms and rural households per accommodation capacity or bed amounts to HRK 5,000.00, and the total value of contracts signed is HRK 1.06 million.

The beneficiaries' activities are catering services for preparing and serving of food and beverages from agricultural products, mostly their own production, accommodation services, and other services in the function of tourist consumption.

Osijek-Baranja County began preparing for aid at the beginning of the year when it was clear that the pandemic would create huge problems in the economy, agriculture, and tourism, said Prefect Ivan Anusic, adding:

"We waited for state aid to see who would get it, that they would not double up and that the subsidies would come to the right address. The total amount of all aid we have given to entrepreneurs, craftspeople, farmers, and those who work in tourism is HRK 17 million, of which 11.2 million is intended for the economy. The current support, in the total amount of HRK 1.06 million to beneficiaries engaged in tourism and accommodation facilities, keeps continental tourism alive in our county. The grants are of high quality and represent concrete help for the beneficiaries to overcome this crisis period and continue developing continental tourism in our area. We will continue with the subsidies next year, not only financially but also through infrastructure, because we want tourism in Osijek-Baranja County to be one of the better industries," said Prefect Anušić.

The head of the Administrative Department for Tourism, Culture, and Sports, Tatjana Roth, pointed out that HRK 1.7 million had been provided for this type of support, and family farms and households expressed the need for the currently agreed HRK 1.06 million.

Namely, the condition for support was a reduced income of 30 percent in June this year compared to June last year, which means that part of the family farms still operated relatively well. Currently, 55% of overnight stays and tourist arrivals are realized compared to the same period last year.

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