Grivičić: State institutions are hiding data on the state of agriculture

‘The Croatian Chamber of Agriculture has the legal authority to obtain all information from state institutions, but it does not receive it.’ This was stated today at a press conference in Zagreb by President Darko Grivičić, outlining the problems the Chamber has faced since its establishment.

The Chamber does not even have data on its membership (every agricultural entity is required to be a member) because the newly established Agency for Payments in Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development has not sent it to them so far. Grivičić expressed his belief that the Agency is hiding something, recalling the case of Selanec and, as he said, does not exclude the possibility that incentives and funds from rural development have been received by other people close to officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, who did not deserve it.
– We suspect bribery and corruption because in the five months we have been trying to obtain this data, we have sent about ten letters, but there have always been various excuses. The same goes for Customs, from which we requested data on the import of agricultural and food products, but its director Mladen Barišić once explained to me that we would not interpret that data correctly, and another time he explained something completely different – said Grivičić.

Regarding this, a member of the Chamber’s Management Board and spokesperson for the Fruit Growers’ Association, Frane Ivković, said that one importer is importing lower quality apples from Poland and declaring them as Croatian products. However, he did not want to say who it was because, as he admitted to reporters, he is afraid after receiving death threats related to an HBOR loan some time ago. When asked by a journalist why he did not report this case to the relevant authorities since it is clear that the Consumer Protection Act has been violated, Ivković repeated why he remains silent. Grivičić added that it concerns one family farm that ‘should have 100 thousand hectares of fruit seedlings to produce such a quantity of apples.’ Therefore, Ivković continued, Croatian fruit growers, along with some traders with the help of the Chamber, will establish a consortium to protect themselves from unfair competition because there is no market order in the country.

– Unfortunately, many traders do not purchase Croatian products, yet they receive large quotas for imports, i.e., quantities they import at preferential prices. We have nothing against that, but we believe that the state should first allocate those quotas to those who also purchase Croatian products – said Ivković, adding that Croatia imports fruit worth 180 million euros annually. Grivičić stated that he will also seek information on which bodies decide on obtaining import quotas because ‘nobody in Croatia knows that,’ which opens the possibility for significant crime. In addition to fruit, significant quantities of wheat are also imported, but for Grivičić, an additional problem is that stories about market surpluses of 400 thousand tons are a myth because those are data obtained based on a written inquiry from the Ministry of Agriculture to domestic silos.

– Čobanković sends a letter, and the silos send him data. But I am sure that at this moment we do not have that much market surplus and we will demand that the state conducts an audit, but in such a way that they go to the silos and determine on-site how much wheat is there. I assure you that there are no state commodity reserves or there are very few, and the remaining wheat is also less than what the Ministry claims. They are only trying to lower the price of wheat with stories about market surpluses – said Grivičić. Regarding the non-compliance with the law by state bodies, the Chamber will inform the President of the Republic Ivo Josipović, the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Luka Bebić, and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor. They will demand that the Agency for Payments and Customs, as well as their top officials, acting director of the Agency Anica Lucević and Customs director Barišić, be punished for not providing the requested information. If she does not do this, they will ask Kosor to suspend proceedings against farmers who clashed with the police during protests over reduced incentives. – If the Prime Minister does not react, she sends a message to us farmers that we also do not have to respect the laws of this state – concluded Grivičić. (Edis Felić)