The forgery of declarations and registered trademarks of cheese producers associated with the Association of Small Cheese Makers of Croatia SirCro, under whose labels cheese of inadequate, health and hygiene questionable quality is illegally sold, is a sad practice that the president Romina Zadravec warns about in a press release on behalf of the Association.
The immediate impetus for this was a case recorded earlier this month at the Dobra-east rest area on the Rijeka – Zagreb highway, where the owner of a business for ‘trading goods in transit’ was selling cheese with forged labels of the registered family farm of cheese maker Nino Mrvoš from Gomirje. Mrvoš sold some of his cow cheeses to the aforementioned trader from Ogulin, which turned out to be just a cover for the later distribution of illegal cheese with forged labels of Mrvoš’s family farm, as well as forged declarations. To add to the audacity of the forger, Zadravec adds, goat cheese of extremely poor quality was sold under the false trademark of Mrvoš’s family farm, even though Mrvoš does not have goats at all and only produces cow cheese, and the declaration was composed outside the standard form.
The police, Mrvoš says, intervened only five days after the report of the detected forgeries, when most of the incriminated cheeses had already been removed, and after the economic inspection had conducted its investigation, Mrvoš, awaiting the results with resignation, says that the reported trader continues to operate, just under a different name. How much damage has been inflicted during the summer on many honest Croatian cheese makers, Mrvoš asks the relevant institutions, while Romina Zadravec recommends all cheese buyers either to purchase directly from registered family farms or to request the appropriate registration certificate from the seller when buying at stalls.
