The number of farmers, suppliers, buyers, and traders who have signed new contracts based on the Law on the Prohibition of Unfair Trading Practices in the Food Supply Chain has dwindled to just a few hundred, which is almost nothing as it concerns several thousand contracts. The deadline expires on March 31, when all old contracts will be null and void. Almost all interlocutors estimate that there is no chance that the actors will adjust their contracts as they cannot agree on the interpretation of certain legal provisions. If the Ministry of Agriculture does not extend the adjustment deadline, and there are currently no announcements that it will, the goods of some, perhaps many, producers could disappear from store shelves at the beginning of April.
Products from all suppliers who do not adjust their contracts with traders to the new regulations after March 31 will not be able to be placed on store shelves, and new contracts are not being signed due to many disputed provisions. At just two workshops organized by the Croatian Chamber of Economy (HGK), as many as 150 legal ambiguities were listed.
– Given that we are legally forced to terminate old contracts, we fear that due to the inability to timely conclude new ones, certain goods may be missing from the shelves. We cooperate with more than seven hundred suppliers. Due to the short time we have been given for adjustment, it will not be possible to meet the deadline for harmonizing all contracts. Despite this, we are doing everything we can to timely align our contracts with legal provisions – says Helmut Fenzl, CEO of Spar.
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