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.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

May the 5th, 2022 - The Zagreb company CircuitMess is busy helping people in Nigeria further develop their technical skills thanks to a decision to team up with the Nigerian Shiny Gloves Club, which was made a couple of years ago.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the Zagreb company CircuitMess and the Nigerian Shiny Gloves Club have been collaborating for two years now, and last year, CircuitMess donated part of the proceeds from the sale of their DJ counter to their association to give as many Nigerian children as possible the opportunity to participate in their programme and develop their skills.

In one of their classrooms sits gifted and willing student Blessing Yohanna. She is a very bright young girl with a great interest and talent for electronics and making things. Unfortunately, she's in danger of becoming a part of some rather pessimistic statistics. According to a UNICEF survey, more than half of girls in northern Nigeria don't attend classes or have regular schooling. Although Blessing desperately wanted to continue her education and enroll in electrical engineering college, her parents dissuaded her from doing so because they could not afford to continue her education and didn't see any prospects in it as she is a female.

“When we heard that Blessing Yohanna was no longer attending classes and why, we wanted to do something about it. We contacted her family and asked them if we could send her some more of our kits directly to her home address, to encourage her to continue learning and developing her talent for electronics, at least from home,'' said Albert Gajsak, the CEO of the Zagreb company CircuitMess.

A visit by a Shiny Gloves Club employee to her family home bore fruit - when they saw how much Blessing was looking forward to these kits, they decided to give education another chance and allowed her to re-attend the workshops she loves so much.

"It's not that her family was vehemently opposed to her education, but just that they simply can't afford it. I don't think they wanted to give her false hope, because it's impossible for them to imagine that we could raise enough money for Blessing to go to the college she wants to attend so much,'' explained Albert.

That’s why  Shiny Gloves Club first launched the Go Fund Me campaign to raise funds to enable Blessing to continue to study electrical engineering.

“This campaign wasn't launched by us, but by our partners from the Shiny Gloves Club, but we want to do as much as we can to spread the word and help raise the necessary funds. The standard of living in Croatia is much higher than it is in Nigeria, and in most cases we can enroll in college for free. In order to be able to enroll in college, she needs to raise 10,000 US dollars. It seems like a lot, but I believe there are a lot of people who are willing to give up one coffee in a coffee shop or some other little things, and every kuna raised means a lot to make this a beautiful story with a happy ending. Thank you to everyone who donates and shares this news,'' concluded Albert Gajsak of the Zagreb company CircuitMess.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

April the 30th, 2022 - Wildly successful Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac, the founder of Rimac Automobili, is looking to employ as many as 250 new employees, some of whom will go on to work in the United Kingdom and in the German capital of Berlin.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, nobody who follows the media space in Croatia will find the name Mate Rimac strange. This incredibly talented and doggedly determined Livno-born businessman not only placed the country on the automotive map after starting out from his garage, but has since become the co-owner of Bugatti Rimac, with many other ventures having taken place in the meantime.

The entrepreneur recently announced on his Facebook profile that he was on the hunt for a significant number of employees, some of whom will remain in the country, and some will go to work abroad in other European countries, namely Germany and the United Kingdom.

At the level of the entire group, as many as 252 people are wanted by the CEO at nine different locations. Of that, 146 people are wanted to work at Rimac Technology, and 106 people are sought for various positions within the large Bugatti Rimac company.

"This year, 300 colleagues have joined us, and by the end of the year we are looking for 400 or more people," he wrote on social media.

Both Rimac and Bugatti are looking for a number of different experts, mostly engineers and software developers.

These future employees will work in Sveta Nedelja and Savska Opatovina near Zagreb, as well as in Split, Osijek, Warwick in the United Kingdom, and one job is also available in Berlin, the businessman revealed.

The amount of jobs Mate Rimac, who is a self described car lover since childhood who could never have dreamed his success would become what it since has, has created for Croatia and beyond is admirable. On top of that, he readily schooled the government on what it means to attract massive industry like the automotive industry to a small country that was otherwise entirely overlooked.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

April the 30th, 2022 - It might sound like a very late April Fool's joke, and it in fact began its ''life'' as such, but the much loved Croatian chocolate brand, Kras, has seriously created a chocolate bar with Croatian cvarci (pork scratchings) inside it. Here's where you can purchase it.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, it all started out as an April Fool's joke from the company on social media, but Kras recently announced on its official Facebook profile that they really have created a bar of much loved Dorina chocolate, but with Croatian cvarci inside it.

They first mentioned this combination in terms of an April Fool’s joke, but, as they explained for N1, the interest from people who saw the joke was so great, and the questions about the chocolate bar so frequent, that they really decided to make a Croatian cvarci infused chocolate bar.

Anyone who wants to try this chocolate for themselves, or just wants to buy it to keep on the shelf as a bit of a joke, can do so as of today as Kras choco and cafe. You may have to get your skates on, however, as this weird and wonderful chocolate bar is a limited edition and when stocks are gone, they're gone.

For more, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.

April the 28th, 2022 - Istria has been proclaimed the world's best olive region for the seventh year in a row, which will hardly come as a surprise to most who flock every year to this part of Croatia to get their fix.

As Morski writes, according to the world's guide to extra virgin olive oils (Flos Olei 2022), Istria is once again the world's best region for extra virgin olive oils, this declaration has been given to the peninsula now for the seventh time in a row. This is especially important for the promotion of Istria as a destination because the publication boasts oils from all over the world, ie from 55 olive groves spanning 5 continents. As such, this part of the country's many olive growers have rightfully found themselves in the company of the world's 500 best with a total share of as much as 13 percent.

66 olive growers from across the peninsula produced such high quality extra virgin olive oil that they deserve a prestigious award, ie inclusion in the thirteenth edition of Flos Oleia.

In this latest edition, the so-called ''bible for extra virgin olive oils'', 67 oils from Croatia are included, of which 66 are from Istria and one comes from further south in Dalmatia. A large number of Istria's olive growers achieved even better results compared to last year, which is proof of the continuous work they put into raising their quality and the application of the latest scientific and technological achievements in olive growing.

The success of local olive growers is far from accidental. With favourable agro-climatic conditions, it is the result of numerous agricultural policies in that area over the past 25 years, such as the intensive education of local olive growers, the wider distribution of seedlings, but most importantly, loans approved by the County Fund for Agriculture and Agrotourism of Istria, as reported by Regional Express.

Thanks to education, the technology of olive growing in Istria has been completely altered, as has the time of harvest, and large investments made by local olive growers with the support of Istria County have enabled such huge steps forward. Huge investments and knowledge have been invested in the preparation of oils for the market, and all this has enabled the Extra Virgin Olive Oil "Istra" to gain protection at the European Union (EU) level. This mark of authenticity guarantees each consumer that all phases of production, processing, storage and bottling have taken place in Istria.

''The decision to brand Istria as a region which offers top agricultural products and not to choose quantity at the expense of quality proved to be a successful recipe. For the seventh year in a row now, we've had it declared that we've got the best olive oil in the world. Agriculture is a branch that requires a lot of hard work and investment, so my sincere congratulations and thanks go to all of Istria's olive growers. Istria County will continue to strongly encourage further development of this branch through the Fund for Development of Agriculture and Agrotourism of Istria, the construction of a public irrigation system, and projects and programmes implemented by the County Agency for Rural Development of Istria,'' said County Prefect Boris Miletic.

Istria has been declared the best olive growing region in the world for the seventh year in a row. This part of the country has taken on an important role and positioned itself as the second best olive growing region, just behind Tuscany. However, every year the advantage of Tuscany was smaller, and at the end of 2016, Istria took the leading position that it has maintained to this day.

For more on Croatian products, as well as olive oil from up and down the coast, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.

April the 27th, 2022 - The Croatian company Premifab has presented its innovative idea to tackle the issue of distillation sludge. The company is already very well known and respected in hazardous waste regeneration.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Marija Brnic writes, last week, during the visit of the Minister of Economy Tomislav Coric, the Croatian company Premifab from Sveta Nedelja, which is the regional market leader in hazardous waste regeneration, revealed that it is continuing to develop and invest 80 million kuna in a new plant in Ivanic Grad, and it has recently taken a step even further.

In cooperation with the Faculty of Geotechnics at the University of Zagreb, the Croatian company Premifab began to develop innovative piece of technology in the development of the recovery of distillation sludge into a useful raw material for further production processes in industry. The value of the project stands at more than 13.3 million kuna, half of which is being co-financed by European Union (EU) funds.

Igor Podravac, the co-founder of Premifab and the director of the company's business development, associate professor Aleksandra Anic Vucinic and Silvija Petkovic, a PhD student at the Faculty of Geotechnics and the head of quality control and labs at Premifab presented the significance of this project for industry and a more sustainable economy at a conference which was held at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK).

This was otherwise the inaugural conference of the IRI2 project "The development of new technology for the more efficient recovery of solvents and other types of hazardous waste", one of 23 Croatian projects in the field of research, development and innovation.

In the five years since it appeared on the market, the Croatian company Premifab has introduced a new standard in the regeneration of hazardous waste by converting as much as 95 percent of waste into raw materials, which it then returns to the shipper in the form of reusable solvents.

It deals mainly the automotive and pharmaceutical industries, as well as in the production of food packaging, and it already recovers more than 1,900 tonnes of solvents per year.

For more, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.

April the 26th, 2022 - The Zagreb company Codel boasts a truly unique private robotic laboratory, making it stand out as the only enterprise in the Republic of Croatia to have one to its name.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sergej Novosel Vuckovic writes, the Zagreb company Codel, with 30 long years of experience in the manufacture and design of systems for production and industry, will soon become completely ''Krizevci-owned''.

Codel has had a part of its activities in this continental Croatian town since back in 2016, and just recently it presented its laboratory in the Development Centre and Technology Park, where it researches and develops applicable robotics applications for industry. Not only that, but next year in the Gornji Cret Entrepreneurial Zone, the company plans to build a factory of its products.

Synchronised action

The Zagreb company Codel's laboratory, a space with several robotic ''beings'', is reportedly the first and only one of its kind in all of Croatia.

“Here, we show our clients our reach, to make sure they know we can do what they want. We're able to create a complete turnkey project, since the client comes and asks us what the problem is, and we solve it with the help of our technologies,'' explained Tihomir Hodak, the former director of Krizevci Entrepreneurial Centre, and who in recent years has become a member of the Board and the director of business development at Codel.

The range of technologies the Zagreb company Codel deals with includes industrial robotics and robotic movements in production, horizontal and vertical integrations in production, traceability and labelling, as well as Industry 4.0. In the lab itself, they showcased what makes the so-called multirobot cell.

“Several robots work in sync on a complex task, not one single robot at a time but three at a time, each one passing information to the other. For example, in the process of receiving and packing a product, a robotic arm turns its head and sends info to the next one in the line who picks up the product, puts it in a box and then ships it,'' Hodak explained.

"We're also counting on expanding our client base, we've already developed some projects that are awaiting technological approval. We've also done two pilot projects in the United Kingdom for e-commerce,'' Hodak revealed. It is imperative for the Zagreb company Codel, which is why they were at the big Gitex fair in Dubai as one of the only two Croatian companies, to automate logistics and warehousing processes, based on solutions that connect business systems with machines.

“Our goal is to increase efficiency and economy in warehousing processes with our own tech solutions. Only 5 percent of all warehouses in the world are automated to a certain level, and we've established that more than 65 percent of the costs of each warehouse fall on the people themselves. Therefore, any automation significantly reduces costs and errors and increases overall efficiency. However, our system doesn't eliminate jobs, but moves people into more productive jobs, where there can be no robot to do the work,'' pointed out Tihomir Hodak, who will say that his boss, owner and CEO Marijan Sever, is a huge technology enthusiast.

"The company's revenues are at the level of almost 9 million kuna, and that's without robotic projects, next year will those numbers will be significantly higher,'' concluded Tihomir Hodak, praising the work of the Zagreb company Codel's employees, all of whom are very highly qualified engineers.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

April the 15th, 2022 - The most well known Croatian hacker, Denis Perisa Darkman, has come up with something rather innovative and creative indeed - a new smart house of sorts.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian computer scientist and hacker Denis Perisa Darkman now has a new brainchild. To be more specific, he has devised a system of sensors that can automatically close windows in a house as soon as the first drop of rain starts falling outside.

This idea came to him thanks to no less than his pet cat, who may get into bother when left alone at home.

When it comes to Denis Perisa Darkman's cat-inspired idea, the blinds close on their own in the ground floor apartment if it starts to rain outside. Denis placed a small optical sensor on the roof of his building in the Sibenik neighbourhood Krvavice, where he lives, and that does the job, RTL news writes.

"When the first drop of rain falls down and hits the sensor, it sends out information that it is currently raining in this neighbourhood. The second phase takes place anywhere. So, I put that information publicly, online, so that everyone can use that information for their own projects,'' said Denis Perisa Darkman, a computer scientist and hacker.

Denis' cat helped him come to this idea, as he wanted to make sure his beloved pet was safe whenever he wasn't home with him. Just before the sensor on the windows closes the blinds in case of rain, a sensor from inside the apartment shows whether or not his cat is inside or outside, as well.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

April the 13th, 2022 - The Zagreb startup Optimoroute has been gaining some truly excellent results across the pond on the American market.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sergej Novosel Vuckovic writes, the recently held American-Croatian Forum in Zagreb raised questions from many domestic companies about what they can provide to Americans and Americans in business. The successful Zagreb startup Optimoroute was able to give them the answer and a hint at the direction in which they should go.

The Zagreb startup Optimoroute stated that Croatian enterprises should try to place an innovative product with expertise in its application and adaptation for different industries. The company run by the Saric brothers - Marin (Chief Executive Officer, CEO) and Frane (Chief Technical Officer, CTO), as co-owners (the third is their friend Goran Kukolj) has developed software, ie a platform for route optimisation and organisation and scheduling field work for the likes of deliverymen and drivers, which brings savings to companies.

With today's disrupted logistics-distribution-supply chains, any method that would reduce the consumption of both variables in the saying "time is money" is highly desirable, and this is best recognised by Americans, Optimoroute's most numerous customers, of which they have more than 2,500 worldwide.

"Our biggest market is America and it has the strongest growth (70 percent of all our revenue), and we have very good results in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Our sales team routinely deals in foreign markets without talking to them live or on the phone. How much we've grown is best shown by the fact that this year alone we sent several million SMS messages through which we informed our customers about the details of their deliveries or the arrival of their service technicians,'' the Zagreb startup Optimoroute's founders explained. There are also small florists and factories, distributors, and also sector leaders among their clients:

“Our client and fresh food supplier is Hardie’s whose 160 trucks make thousands of deliveries a day across the state of Texas. With the OptimoRoute platform, they reduced the distance travelled by 20 percent and increased their delivery capacity by 16 percent. The planning process has been accelerated 8 times, and now one person is doing what a team of people used to do,'' say the Saric brothers. Just how efficient and adaptable their innovative platform is for all SUVs is illustrated by yet another example:

"When a severe snowstorm hit the northeastern United States recently, some 16 million Americans were affected. The services involved in snow removal used our platform with which they could act in the field much faster. Given that with our software, one person does more work in half a day than a team of 8 logisticians would do in a month, it isn't surprising that we've reached a lot of clients,'' explained the men behind the Zagreb startup Optimoroute.

"We're currently in talks and we hope that some of those talks will result in some new customers as they're aware of the importance of modernising their logistics to become more competitive in the global market," said Frane and Marin Saric. An important piece of news for their business, aside from the fact that they have doubled their number of employees to 40 since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and that they have grown significantly when it comes to revenue, they also believe that they have attracted top managers. Although their entire engineering process is right here in Croatia, Optimoroute is, as they say, an international company that employs experts from the USA, as well as from the rest of Europe in France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

"As energy prices continue to rise, companies are becoming more sensitive to fuel consumption, which is another reason why our platform is so useful to them," concluded Frane and Marin Saric from the Zagreb startup Optimoroute.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

April the 13th, 2022 - The Rimac team have been testing out Mate Rimac's stunning Nevera in some rather extreme conditions close to the Arctic Circle up in Sweden.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Rimac team completed two intensive weeks of winter testing with the gorgeous Nevera supercar back in March at Pirelli’s Sottozero Centre near the Arctic Circle in Sweden. With unusually warm daytime temperatures, the Rimac team spent their time testing the car at night when temperatures were at their lowest and as such their most extreme, adjusting systems such as the ABS, ESP and torque vectoring, and before delivering the very first production cars.

After several years of simulations and testing on tracks, as well as in various test centres across Europe, the all-electric 1914 hp Rimac Nevera has already passed its homologation crash tests for the US and EU, serial production is underway and deliveries to customers around the world will begin in the next few months. However, to ensure that each management system works perfectly in all conditions, the Rimac team headed up to Sweden to confirm the results they had previously achieved on the road, on the tracks and in the climate chambers.

This environment was an ideal opportunity to test the Nevera on its recommended winter tyres - Pirelli P Zero Winter. This type of tyre is characterised by a special mark on the side that testifies to the joint development that Pirelli carried out in partnership with Rimac. Nevera's standard summer tires are otherwise Michelin Pilot Sport 4S.

Miroslav Zrncevic, Chief Development and Test Driver, said: ''Testing the Nevera on a low-adhesion substrate allows us to make consistent and accurate observations of how our systems operate at low temperatures. Things happen much slower on this than they do on asphalt, and we have nice, even, smooth handling paths so we know that the data we get isn't being affected by surface imperfections or temperature changes. After these two weeks of testing, we're happy to see exactly the results we wanted to achieve.''

Mate Rimac, the CEO of Rimac Group, said: “For us, this process of testing in extreme conditions was an opportunity to perfect the Nevera, ensuring that it's perfect before the first deliveries go out to the owners. Even after two weeks spent at temperatures of around -15 ° C and with a rather demanding testing regime, our prototype met the conditions by achieving 100 percent of the expected results, so we know that all our core systems can work reliably even in extreme conditions. What we also wanted to achieve is to develop a super sports car that can be driven and enjoyed by someone who isn't the most experienced driver. Finding a balance of creating an exciting, driver-adaptable yet safe ride in a 1914 hp car with four independent electric motors has been our goal since day one, and as testing nears the end, I can say with certainty that this is exactly what we achieved with the Nevera.''

For more, check out our lifestyle section.