Those who want to survive will have to conquer the market outside Croatia, stated Ljerka Puljić, Vice President of Agrokor, at a professional conference on the role of trade in the Croatian economy in the process of joining the EU.
At the professional conference ‘The Role of Trade in the Croatian Economy’, held on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the publication of the magazine Suvremena trgovina, the role and share of trade in GDP creation were discussed, as well as the future of Croatian trade when the market is liberalized with Croatia’s entry into the EU. The conference also featured speakers from Germany and Austria. The share of Croatian wholesale and retail trade in GDP in 2009 was 9.5 percent, or 31.64 billion kuna, and 188,122 employees were employed in that sector, which is 15.53 percent of all employed in Croatia. One topic – why Croatia needs an industrial development strategy, was presented by Prof. Dr. Ljubo Jurčić, which initially seemed out of context.
However, Jurčić explained that without a base rooted in industrial production, Croatian trade will not be able to seriously compete in the markets of developed countries. Meanwhile, Ljerka Puljić, Vice President of Agrokor, demonstrated through the example of the role of retail chains in the development and globalization of the Croatian economy that the future of Croatian trade is bleak. Out of ten retail chains, three to four will survive when Croatia enters the EU. Puljić noted that today, 70 percent of the goods on the shelves of Croatian retail chains are from Croatian producers, but that this percentage will decrease in the future. She advises producers and retailers to adapt and internationalize their services in the same way that foreigners do in Croatia. Ljerka Puljić warned that retail, if organized as it is now, will struggle to survive.
