Minister of Agriculture Marija Vučković met on Monday with members of the Poultry Farming Committee of the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture as part of her assignment. This task arises from the Government’s Conclusion on the implementation of the principle of prohibiting unjustified price increases, adopted last Thursday, under which she is tasked to ‘immediately take all necessary measures and activities to collect all relevant data on the movement of prices of agricultural and food products and report this to the Government of the Republic of Croatia within 15 days from the date of adoption of this Conclusion.’
Thus, next Thursday, Minister Vučković will report to the Government, among other things, whether poultry farmers had justified reasons for the price increases of chicken and eggs, whose new prices have been particularly highlighted in the context of considering (allegedly) unjustified price hikes.
According to reports from that meeting, poultry farmers ‘opened their hearts’ to the minister. They listed what pressures them in their business:
- the price of poultry feed has increased by 40%;
- a major problem for producers is the lack of agricultural land available to poultry farmers;
- they requested greater control and a reduction in corn exports to protect national interests;
- the combination of rising and price-limiting measures and high input costs disrupts the state of the sector;
- uncontrolled imports, among other things caused by the abolition of quotas with Ukraine, is a huge problem;
- for some producers, the gas bill has increased tenfold, and production requires high energy consumption;
- there are numerous administrative barriers that demotivate poultry farmers from installing solar panels;
- there has been no sectoral competition for investment/renewal of poultry farms so far;
- the lack of labor requires high investments in mechanization;
- the mandated measure against Newcastle disease in poultry is still not funded, causing significant problems for producers…
In short, the meeting of Minister Vučković with poultry farmers ended with a plea from producers for additional aid measures to ensure that poultry production in Croatia can survive at all. Whether the price increases for chicken and eggs were justified or unjustified will have to be concluded by the minister herself. We believe it will be an interesting report next Thursday at the Government.
