The Ministry of Agriculture reported on Thursday that in the ongoing supervision of 10 facilities supplying food to retail chains, some form of non-compliance was found in all of them, and that the relevant inspectors will file charges against all of them. Increased supervision and a vigorous public debate on the quality and origin of food in Croatia was initiated by the tragic death of a five-year-old boy who was poisoned by salmonella from eggs imported from Poland. Accusations are flying from all sides, but they are largely directed at large retail chains and importers. “I will not allow garbage from other countries to be imported into Croatia,” said Minister of Agriculture Tomislav Tolušić.
– It sounds somewhat incredible that we import carp fillets from Vietnam, frozen fish from Scandinavia, wines from South Africa, honey, beans, and garlic from China, spices from Egypt, milk from other EU countries, and pork from Denmark and the Netherlands. We even import dried plums from the USA, vegetables from Spain, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and even straw from Hungary,” said Željko Kraljičak, Deputy of Osijek-Baranja County and agricultural expert, for Glas Slavonije.
– It has indeed been unreasonable to allow milk to be sold on the market for 2.50 kuna plus VAT, knowing that domestic production is at least 3 kuna, which directly endangers both the primary producer and the processor. Then there is the import of meat and meat products of questionable quality and age, knowing that they are sold three times below the cost price of Croatian products, and previous policymakers had complete information and hid it from consumers, thus protecting the import lobby and all those who undermine domestic production, directly harming Croatian national interests,” he says.
