August the 22nd, 2022 - Hrvatska kuca (Croatian house) will certainly make a mark in Qatar as we head towards the World Cup, set to take place in that Arab peninsula country.

As Morski writes, the Croatian national football team will go to the World Cup in Qatar to defend the silver from Russia, and will have an even stronger presence owing to the sensational and spectacular Hrvatska kuca (Croatian house) located down by the sea.

All of the necessary contracts have been signed and all of the permits for the future Hrvatska kuca have been secured, meaning that during the World Cup in Qatar, the world's longest sailing ship with cross sails, the 162-metre long "Golden Horizon" made at the Croatian shipyard Brodosplit, will be docked in Doha.

This huge sailing ship will be a platform for the promotion of overall Croatian excellence, from the booming tourism, gastronomy and culture scene, to the Croatian economy and, of course, to Croatian sport, and what is equally important - it will also double up as an extremely impressive six-star hotel for 300 lucky people.

From the very beginning, the Croatian Football Association has been following all efforts to realise this excellent but very challenging project.

''It was with great pleasure that we received the news that this beautiful sailing ship will be part of Croatia's representation at the World Cup over in Qatar. We're in contact with the people who made it all happen, and the Croatian Football Association will logistically help with this big project for the promotion of Croatian football, as well as the entire Croatian nation,'' said Marijan Kustic, the president of the HNS.

The details of the large Hrvatska kuca project, as well as how and under what conditions it will be possible to get accommodation on that sailing ship during the World Cup itself in Qatar, will be known in ten days and will then be made publicly available. The project was realised thanks to the Croatian Business Council Qatar, which has been promoting Croatian interests in Qatar for years, according to a report from Vecernji list journalist Karlo Ledinski, as transmitted by N1.

For more on Croatian football, sport and the upcoming World Cup, make sure to check out our dedicated sport section.

Thanks to new product lines supported by European Union funds, the Zagreb company Green and More managed to successfully expand its exports and achieve an impressive 40 percent growth this year.

As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 22nd of December, 2018, Green and More, a Zagreb company which specialises in food and nutritional supplements, has introduced its brand new and expanded product line, backed by prestigious international certifications. They celebrated ten years of their eco work on the Croatian market, and they have been defined as the eco producer which is striving to reach the highest standards, according to Ivana Stavljenić, the Zagreb company's director and co-founder.

The Zagreb company is the producer of the well-known Liquid Sun ecological product, a nutrition supplement made from young green wheat, and their new line of products delivers Green and More RAW cookies, which are also prestigious certificate holders which act as additional value and high-quality tags.

"The cookies are processed by the method of processing raw food at a temperature of up to 40 degrees celsius in order to preserve the nutritive value of its raw material, the closest to what it would be in its natural state, rich in protein and enzymes, minerals and vitamins," Stavljenić explained. The new line of products is available in three flavours of balanced blends of organic fruit, nuts and spices, without sugar, gluten, additives or potentially hamrful pesticides, and they are purely organic.

These products are pistachio/lemon biscuits with refreshing citrus aromas which provide for a special gastro experience, then cookies with the taste of true blueberries and cocoa, and orange cakes as the new dimension of the Zagreb company's chocolate gastro experience. In addition to these new products, the company can boast of new exports, relocating to a new production facility, as well as making use of incentives derived from EU funds.

"When we compare this year with last year, the company has been successful, marking its tenth anniversary on the Croatian market, presenting a new line of products that are carriers of international quality certifications, EU incentives and new exports. When it comes to revenue and sales, we're satisfied with our growth of about 40 percent,'' Stavljenić noted, adding that the Zagreb company's growth is a consequence of expanding the product line, and some recently contracted exports to the German market.

The ability to wthdraw funds from EU funds is of great importance to this Zagreb company. All the money they have withdrawn has not been used for machines and the like, but for the continual improvment of product quality.

"We've got money for new production process certification and for the website, which is important to us because it has a web shop built in. In addition, we've signed up for a bid for internationalisation, which means presentations at foreign fairs in Sweden and in England. I believe that we'll get the chance because we've passed the first phase. So far, we've withdrawn 470,000 kuna from EU funds, and if our bid for internationalisation goes through, that would make it an additional 200,000 kuna because in this project, we put four fairs in the two countries,'' added Stavljenić, stressing that consumers have to be offered more than just the same old story on both Croatian and foreign markets.

"We have been certified for at least the first year, with 85 percent of the grant, which is significant. We hope that with commercialisation and a higher export frequency, which is the intention, that it will be able to continue funding itself," said the director. There are currently six people employed in the company, and due to increased needs, which are mostly seasonal, they hire more part-time workers.

"In line with the expansion of the production program in Croatia and the opening of new export markets, we will increase this figure to match an adequate workload increase," added Stavljenić.

As stated by Stavljenić during the first quarter of 2019, the Zagreb company plans to introduce a line of yet more new products, and their products are expected to emerge on yet more new export markets. In addition to the shelves across the Republic of Croatia and other specialised stores which sell healthy and homemade food, Green and More's products are available through webshops and can be purchased in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and soon in the United Kingdom and Qatar.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business and Made in Croatia pages for much more on Croatian companies, products and services, as well as doing business in Croatia, and the business and investment climate.

Click here for the original article by Lucija Spiljak for Poslovni Dnevnik

More luxury vessels float effortlessly in the Pearl of the Adriatic.

More good news for long haul travellers to Croatia.

Aid for migrants in Croatia arrives from Qatar.