In the first seven months of this year, Croatia recorded a trade deficit in goods exchange with Serbia amounting to 12 million euros, according to data from the Serbian Statistical Office, which shows that our neighbors also have a surplus with other former Yugoslav republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. During the mentioned period, Croatia exported goods worth 244 million euros to Serbia and imported 256 million euros from Serbia.
The head of the Croatian Exporters Association, Darinko Bago, states that this is an expected trend in food imports due to the “devastation” of Croatian milk producers and other agricultural products for which demand is increasing during the tourist season.
– The issue is that for the last four or five years, there has been a systematic lack of effort in promoting exports and reducing imports. Our agricultural products, starting from milk, have been devastated, so it is normal to import from those countries, said Darinko Bago for tportal.
Bago added that Croatia is strengthening in imports and exports as a transit economy because it forwards goods imported from the European Union to neighboring countries, creating a small added value in the process.
– The overall picture is very problematic. There is also the story of tourism growth. Most tourists are in private accommodation, and these are people who buy imported goods from us. There is no recovery in consumption here because foreigners are spending, and we are actually working for neighboring countries, he said.
