Minister of Agriculture Tomislav Tolušić emphasized on Monday in Pitomača at a workshop on new funding measures for rural development that about 30 tenders are being announced for rural development projects, for which 3.7 billion kuna has been secured this year, as reported by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Organized by the Ministry and the Agency for Payments in Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development, the first in a series of events ‘Our Domestic, Now and in the Future’ was held in Pitomača, aimed at informing farmers on how to access EU funds for rural development, namely for equipping farms, building facilities, securing crops, as well as for green agriculture, whose practices provide farmers with an additional source of income.
After the workshop, products marked by the Croatian Agricultural Agency were presented at a working lunch with Minister Tolušić – meat, milk, and eggs from Croatian farms, honey from Croatian beekeepers, as well as flour and bread from Croatian fields, along with Croatian indigenous products protected by the designation of origin in the EU.
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– We are announcing about 30 tenders for rural development projects for which we secured 3.7 billion kuna in 2018, Tolušić pointed out, noting that in the Virovitica-Podravina County alone, a total of 420 million kuna worth of projects has been contracted through the measures of the Rural Development Program.
Tolušić also emphasized that all measures that the Ministry of Agriculture has adopted and is implementing during his mandate aim to increase the competitiveness of our agricultural producers and the volume of domestic production.
– I believe that alongside all the laws and regulations we have established, it is necessary to continuously inform citizens about the value and quality of domestic food. The Land Law comes into effect this week, so we will gather representatives of local government units at these workshops who will start developing programs for the management of state land, through which they will announce tenders and allocate state land to farmers, Tolušić emphasized.
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The Ministry’s statement highlights that the consumption of domestic agricultural and food products directly impacts the preservation and further development of domestic agricultural production. It also contributes to increasing the overall competitiveness of the Croatian economy, preserving rural areas and jobs, both in the primary agricultural sector and in the food industry.
– Through educating citizens, products from family farms are in higher demand, their online sales have increased, hoteliers are including domestic products in their offerings, interest in rural tourism is growing, citizens are reading product labels more carefully, and farmers are showing greater interest in HPA labeling of their products, the Ministry of Agriculture’s statement concludes.
