State Secretary Tugomir Majdak: We are asking the EC for less administration for farmers

State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Tugomir Majdak stated on Wednesday in the Parliament that the Ministry is preparing proposals for the European Commission to relieve farmers from administrative tasks, and the opposition also emphasizes that farmers spend a third of their time on such tasks.

– We have proposed a basic set of relief measures and are preparing proposals that we will send to the European Commission to further ease the administrative procedure – emphasized State Secretary Majdak in the Croatian Parliament, which is discussing amendments to the Law on the Prohibition of Unfair Trading Practices in the Food Supply Chain.

Ministry for Self-Sufficiency in Food Production

– The Ministry of Agriculture advocates for self-sufficiency in food production at the level of the European Union and for increasing food production in countries that became beneficiaries of European funds in the last two waves of EU enlargement, including Croatia – added the State Secretary.

This was in response to a question from SDP’s Boška Ban Vlahek regarding what the relevant Ministry intends to do regarding the demands of farmers who protested in Đakovo in solidarity with European agricultural producers.

– The biggest problem is with the administration that the EU imposes on farmers. They spend about 30 percent of their time dealing with administration, while they could be in the field cultivating their crops – said Ban Vlahek.

The SDP representative sees the cause of the problems faced by Croatian and European farmers in large trade agreements, such as the one with South American countries, which brings low-quality food to Europe at dumping prices.

The unrealistic low prices were also pointed out by Domovinski pokret representative Davor Dretar.

– In one retail chain, I was offered a kilogram of pork leg for 2.8 euros. What is the approximate entry price since it is obviously imported? How, when, and from where was it imported? – asked Dretar.

The State Secretary responded that Croatia is not self-sufficient in pork production as it is currently at 55 percent, and the reduction in production has also been influenced by African swine fever.

– On the other hand, we have more competitive production in certain EU member states that modernized much earlier and became competitive within their producers. In this context, the ministry advocates for equal standing and an increase in the financial envelope so that our farmers can also be competitive – replied Majdak.

Fraud against consumers by presenting inaccurate data on product labels

Ivica Kirin (HDZ) and Marijan Pavliček (Croatian Sovereigntists) warned about the problem of consumer fraud by presenting inaccurate data on product labels.

– You have the slogan ‘From Croatian fields’, and below it says that the country of origin is Austria. Since when are those Croatian fields in Austria? – asked Pavliček, to which the State Secretary said that the State Inspectorate has increased controls and called on anyone who notices such irregularities to report them to the inspection and the Agency for the Protection of Market Competition.

Amendments to the Law on Unfair Trading Practices remove provisions on the minimum margin for production and market-sensitive agricultural food products as well as restrictions on the final selling price and limitations on promotional sales of these products.

Tripartite Commission for Preventing Unfair Trading Practices

The Ministry did not accept the proposal of the Parliamentary Committee for Agriculture related to the protection of the domestic market from market surpluses from other EU member states, in a way that would introduce provisions stating that the final selling price cannot be lower than the production price.

– By administratively determining the production price as the level of the minimum selling price below which certain products cannot be sold, the principles of market competition are most directly violated because producers who can produce competitively and cheaper than the prescribed production price are deprived of the right to market competition, and then they cannot utilize their advantage – noted Majdak.

On the other hand, the proposal of the same Committee to establish a tripartite commission with representatives from the ministry, farmers, and the scientific community to consider the positive experiences of other European countries in preventing unfair trading practices has been accepted.