There is probably no company in Croatia that, when faced with the business difficulties brought on by the recession, has not even considered – export. Although it should have always been a logical choice for domestic companies given the small domestic market, reality proves us wrong. There are few exporters, and even fewer who export high-value products.
This tourist season will be similar to last year’s, with even sharper price scissors. However, the largest company has opened new sales channels: from adriatica.net through HoReCa to strengthening tourist consumption in its stores. The reason for Agrokor and other companies entering the ownership of adriatica.net will remain a mystery to some for a long time. Nevertheless, the first step has finally been taken in the physical merging of green and blue Croatia. More in the story by Željka Laslavić ‘Agrokor brings buyers of its products to Croatia.’
And it happened. The Croatian consortium was defeated in the battle for the construction of the Montenegrin highway. In fact, it lost a war it had already won. Perhaps that is why the first man of the other company in the consortium, Jure Radić, chose to retreat to Priština at the time of making the most important decision of his career. However, if Croatia had an export bank, the business in Montenegro would certainly not have failed. Namely, the job of the export bank would be to secure large, nationally important projects. This thesis is supported by all our interlocutors. However, each of them has their own idea about its implementation. More about export from the pen of Gordana Gelenčer.
There are more and more Croatian entrepreneurs who painfully realize that there will not be opportunities for growth and development in the domestic market for a long time. Turning to export, however, is a long-term, complex, and risky business. The persistent will ultimately be rewarded. There is probably no company in Croatia that, when faced with business difficulties brought on by the recession, has not even considered – export. Although it should have always been a logical choice for domestic companies given the small domestic market, reality proves us wrong. There are few exporters, and even fewer who export high-value products. Some of the blame lies in macroeconomic conditions, specifically the exchange rate that favored importers, but at least equally in the inertia and ignorance of domestic entrepreneurs. Matilda Bačelić in the topic of the week argues that anyone who does not start looking at foreign markets now can certainly put the key in the door.
