Neretva mandarin has become a hit in Russia this autumn. Since the harvest began, about thirty trucks of yellow fruits are exported weekly to this new market, gaining the trust of local buyers with their quality, writes slobodnadalmacija.hr.
The largest buyer of mandarins in the Neretva valley, the company ‘Agrofructus’, which operates within the Agrokor group, intends to export more than three thousand tons of mandarins to the Russian market. – Russia has become our partner country in mandarin exports this season, says Agrofructus director Niko Kapović, noting that eighty percent of the purchased harvest will also be exported to traditional markets in Slovenia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Neretva mandarin has long found its place. Otherwise, Agrofructus plans to purchase about 33 thousand tons of mandarins from its approximately eight hundred cooperators, which is more than half of the total harvest in the Neretva valley.
It is estimated that this year mandarins worth 27 million euros will be exported from the Neretva valley, making this characteristic Neretva fruit a Croatian export brand in the demanding European agricultural product market. In order for the Neretva mandarin to compete in Europe, the government subsidizes the purchase costs of mandarins with 0.70 kuna per kilogram from budgetary funds, with a minimum guaranteed price of 2.90 kuna, and a purchase quota of 55 thousand tons has been established, which is almost the entire harvest for this year. (www.slobodnadalmacija.hr)
