June the 3rd, 2021 - Fancy breathing in the beautiful aroma of fresh Adriatic sea air when putting that irritating mask back over your mouth and nose yet again as you enter the shop? Now you can, thanks to one Croatian brand and one 100% Croatian protective mask.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, Salt and checkers is a young Croatian company whose team of enthusiasts and medical experts has designed an innovative product: a mask with the addition of no less than sea salt.

"Breathe the sea air" is a mask produced right here in the Republic of Croatia with the aim for everyone to get ''a taste'' of what it's like to breathe the fresh salty air from the beautiful Croatian Adriatic sea.

"The business idea itself was born six years ago. Encouraged by solving our own health problems and challenges, we designed an innovative product that at that time offered a solution to the problem we were facing. We wanted to make the benefits of breathing salty Adriatic sea air available to everyone.

We're especially proud of the fact that we managed to develop and produce a 100 percent Croatian product. The idea was born out of a personal need when a doctor advised a person close to use to stay by the sea for a long time due to the respiratory problems they were experiencing.

This spurred our research and thought about the impact of breathing in salty air on our health which led us to salt rooms and finally to the idea of ​​creating a “portable salt room,” they explained from the Croatian company Salt and checkers. As they noted, during its development, the product has changed many times, in regard to both faces and technical solutions.

The Breathe Sea Air mask which allows users to breath in fresh Adriatic sea air was launched on the market in early 2021, it contains salt that is woven between the layers in order to better preserve its properties and to make its effects last longer. The mask is four-layered and designed to make inhaling and exhaling easier.

"In this long process, we encountered many closed doors and insurmountable challenges, but we also gradually found a group of broad-minded and persistent people who pushed the boundaries a bit and contributed to today's product being complete and people using it with pleasure.

Of course, the coronavirus pandemic had a massive impact on our business, but our idea arose before the pandemic did and the strategies and goals we set were not dependent on the pandemic itself. Our creative team is working on expanding the range and we expect the release of new products at the beginning of next year. We are in love with pure Croatian salt, so we're announcing that new products will also have this connection too,'' they revealed from Salt and checker.

For now, these ''salty'' masks are available on their webshop and in pharmacies all over Croatia, and the entire production process takes place right here in the country.

''We've established a partnership with the company Sophy from Osijek, which is our exclusive manufacturer. We're especially glad about that because we managed to connect blue and green Croatia. It's a renowned and stable partner who, with high expertise and standards, has shown flexibility and production capacity,'' they pointed out from this Zagreb company.

They note that customers immediately understood the product and what it is about and this gives them more of a spring in their step for further entrepreneurial ventures and ideas.

"The first reactions are extremely positive and we're very happy about that. At this early stage of product introduction, we're really listening to literally every reaction, evaluating everything and using the information obtained to make our product even better. Most products are now sold in Croatia, while a smaller part goes to EU countries.

Part of our expansion plans relate to foreign markets and we put a lot of effort into that. If 2021 was the year of the introduction of the Breathe Sea Air mask on the Croatian market, we hope that 2022 will be the year of foreign markets when we will see the results of today's work and investments,'' they concluded.

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ZAGREB, 30 January, 2021 - The ship Xin Tian Jin arrived in the northern Adriatic port of Rijeka on Saturday with 88 tonnes of protective gear from China, which will be used in further efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, the Croatian government said.

The shipment includes 151,200 swab kits, 500,000 FFP3 face masks and 480,000 protective suits. As in previous cases, the protective gear was purchased from the Chinese companies MEHECO and Sinopharm.

The value of today's shipment is $1,982,560.

Next week, the equipment will transported to the civil protection logistics centre in Jastrebarsko, about 30 kilometres southwest of Zagreb, from where it will be distributed to the coronavirus response authorities.

As Vedran Marjanovic/Novac writes on the 10th of November, 2020, after attracting public attention a few months ago by announcing the production of four-layer masks with 99% antibacterial and antiviral protection, the Croatian company Splendor tekstil from Zagreb produced the first large quantities of masks for the market and contracted with Croatian wholesalers for their delivery to pharmacies.

''Distribution is just starting through wholesalers, legal entities can order these masks directly from us, and people can get them in all the best pharmacies across the country,'' says Splendor's Textile Development Manager, Suzana Percic, revealing that serial production of four-layer masks in Splendor's plants in Sesvete and Klanjec started a month ago, after their trial production back in July.

Antivirus filtering

The motives the Croatian company Splendor were guided by when they decided to start with the production of masks aren't hard to guess and concern the current struggle of humanity with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The company says that they realised that the type of protective mask used so far in the fight against the virus should be improved so that, as they point out, the manufacturer, in addition to a high degree of antibacterial filtration, provides a high degree of antiviral filtration.

''In communication with European laboratories with which we've been cooperating for years, as well as in communication with our suppliers of layered fabrics with different types of membranes, we recognised the direction of development of the mask in which we want to go. As European laboratories are only just beginning to think about antiviral filtration test methods, we did that part in America. With antibacterial filtration greater than 99 percent, our masks showed extremely high values ​​of virus filtration, more than 99 percent,'' explained the interlocutor from Splendor Textiles.

The technology of achieving high antiviral and antibacterial protection of the Croatian company Splendor's mask is based on the raw material composition of the mask, nanofilters which, as they pointed out from Splendor, are an additional value of the mask because there is no negative impact on human health whatsoever.

There are plans to export

The retail price of Splendor's four-layer mask currently stands at a mere nine kuna, or 11.25 kuna with VAT included. The masks will be available for purchase in packs of 55 pieces. Splendor claims that they plan to export their masks to foreign markets after discovering that their monthly production capacity of masks can reach an impressive four million copies.

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