The Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Croatia and the head of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, who was appointed last week as the president of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce for Slovenia, Ivica Pirić, will organize the Croatian-Ukrainian Economic Forum in Kiev by the end of the year, which, as he expects, will be opened by the Croatian and Ukrainian prime ministers.
The theme of the Forum will be the food industry and production, as well as opportunities for increasing trade and entering this large market. Pirić expects that around 25 to 30 of our leading companies from this sector will participate in the forum, writes Agrobiz.
In addition to business discussions, there will also be product presentations where our companies will showcase their products. Pirić notes that there are almost no Croatian products in Ukraine, with only Podravka being slightly represented.
– Given that I have already had discussions with the largest supermarket chains and store chains that offer some more exclusive food production, I can say that there is enormous interest in our products. Primarily, I am thinking of prosciutto, cheeses, pancetta, kulen, olive oil, wines, various alcoholic beverages, as well as canned fish, ajvar, olives, various fish products, lamb, etc. The Ukrainian people have very similar dietary habits to ours, and our products are absent in that market, and I believe we have a huge chance to appear there and be competitive and stimulate trade exchange.
Various people from the government and business will be present at the Forum, and our companies will have the opportunity to talk to the largest distributors and traders. The potentials are great, as a country with 45 million inhabitants and similar dietary habits should and must be interesting for our producers.
– Our current exchange is about 50 million dollars, which is very little considering the potential. For example, our neighbor, Serbia, has about 300 million dollars in trade exchange with Ukraine, and previously, when it exported more, their cookware factory Metalac had an exchange of even one billion dollars, says Pirić, a former football player who spent a significant part of his career at Kiev’s Arsenal.
Interestingly, Ukraine was first in the world last year in wheat and corn exports. It is strong in the production of sunflower oil, artificial fertilizers, metals, and coal, so Pirić believes that there can be a lot of interesting goods for Croatian companies to purchase in this market. Market research has shown that there are great potentials here for our companies and the country.
– I believe that our largest companies will appear at the Forum and that the Forum will result in the first major export contracts, but potentially also for some other forms of cooperation.
Namely, before Croatia’s entry into the EU, several charters flew from Ukraine to our sea every week, so there is no reason why it shouldn’t be like that again. Moreover, Ukrainians should soon have their visa requirements for the European Union lifted. At the Forum in Kiev, there will also be a company that will enable Ukrainians to explore investment opportunities in Croatia for large and small projects. As Pirić claims, there is great interest in investments, but many companies and businessmen, unfortunately, do not have good experiences with us because they have faced numerous barriers, especially bureaucratic ones.
– I am confident that the arrival of our companies and products in the Ukrainian market can be a good springboard for opening doors for Croatian products in other countries that border Ukraine, optimistically states Ivica Pirić.
