March 29, 2020 - The Croatian lockdown and market closures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus particularly affected Croatian farmers, who are no longer available to essential sales channels, thus endangering their livelihoods.

HRTurizam writes that didn’t take long, however, for various Facebook neighborhood, city, and county groups to emerge as online marketplaces that promote local OPGs and their offerings in one place and connect them directly with customers. Also, various IT companies have set up small webshops to assist Croatian farmers in order to facilitate communication and sales.

But since the beginning of the week, Marinada - a leading company in the region in the production, processing, buying and selling of fresh fruits and vegetables - has launched an action for small producers to help small-scale farms. 

Thus, Marinada is helping Croatian farmers get their products on the market.

"We are ready to respond by buying fruits and vegetables from agricultural producers, whether they are our subcontractors or not, standardize the product as much as possible and deliver it to the market," said Marinada owner Denis Matijevic.

Five days later, Marinada reported that the response was excellent and that they had communicated with over 100 producers so far, and 40 of them had cooperated. "For the time being, Swiss chard, lettuce and young onions have been bought, in the order of products that are now in season, and of course we are ready to buy whatever else comes in season," Matijevic points out.

Matijevic also added that in the current situation, it is necessary to take care of a safe and sufficient supply of population, which they do. “It is especially important to take care of small farmers who are now in challenging times. We must not let them stop working, because they are an important link for achieving self-sufficiency in the future,” Matijevic emphasized.

The company is headquartered in Slatina, one of the state-of-the-art pasteurized fruit and vegetable production facilities in the region, and small producers who want to market their merchandise are being asked to come to Marinada's shopping centers located in Virovitica, Varaždin, Donji Miholjac, Zagreb and Opuzen.

Contact Marinada HERE for full details on marketing your merchandise

At the same time, Marinada launched an initiative urging supermarket chains to do the same.

"The initiative was readily accepted by Konzum and SPAR retail chains, which will market these goods to customers, and others are expected to be involved, given the positive reactions," Matijevic concluded.

To further help small domestic farmers who can no longer sell their products at marketplaces, SPAR invites all small producers to contact them to ensure that their products are placed on the SPAR and INTERSPAR store shelves.

“Products from more than 40 small domestic producers and OPGs can be found on our shelves. In addition, we cooperate with small producers of fruits and vegetables through our brand "Croatian Gardens". We invite all small fruit and vegetable growers who can no longer market their products to contact us directly by calling 01 2410 900,” says SPAR.

Konzum will also open a much-needed sales channel to small domestic manufacturers after the markets closed.

"With this initiative, we are ready to offer our buying capacities and sales network to those who are not able to market their products," emphasized Konzum, adding: “Fruits and vegetables of Croatian origin already account for over 80 percent of turnover in that category in Konzum, and through the new initiative we are ready to offer our buying capacities and sales network to those who do not have the opportunity to market their products after the markets closed for domestic producers of fruits and vegetables. Citizens will soon be able to continue buying these products in Konzum stores all over Croatia.”

Interested farmers can contact distributors PIK Vinkovci, Marinada, and Fragarias who will buy and deliver to Konzum.

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