HUP: Croatian Agriculture is Over-Indebted and Unproductive

Croatian agriculture is uncompetitive, highly indebted, and unproductive, assesses the Association of Food Industry and Agriculture of the Croatian Employers’ Association.

– Croatian agriculture is uncompetitive, highly indebted, and unproductive. We all swear by production and increasing production, but without accepting the fact of where we currently stand and the reasons we are in this position, Croatia will not make the necessary steps and will be forced to depend on food imports for its citizens, as well as raw materials for the food industry in the long term – warn the employers.

They believe that another disruption in agricultural production, due to force majeure such as lockdowns or escalation of global tariff conflicts, would confront Croatian agricultural production and food supply for the population with insurmountable obstacles.

At the bottom of the EU in terms of food exports

They warn that Croatia has a negative foreign trade balance in food exchange of two billion euros and is at the very bottom of food exporters per capita in the EU.

Furthermore, they state that of the 50,000 tractors in Croatia, 35,000 or 70 percent are on average 40 years old.

– The strength of Croatian agriculture is evidenced by the fact that we have only 400 tractors with a power greater than 150 kilowatts out of a total of 164,000 registered farms – say the employers.

They also note that Croatia has lost apple production while investing tens of millions of euros in organic walnut production, resulting in their lowest production ever.

They believe that the lack of strategy is clearly reflected in the fact that Croatian citizens currently subsidize 163 agricultural crops in organic production. They criticize large investments in organic pastures and meadows and extensive livestock farming, although, as they say, it is clear that Croatia does not have sufficient agricultural land for this form of livestock farming to result in sufficient quantities of meat or milk even for domestic needs.

Regarding organic production, they say it is strictly controlled, but most products are sold as conventional products of lower class and quality, while the price to the producer is substituted by organic support.

– The available land and such a method of production do not support the needs of the domestic food industry for raw materials and make us dependent on food imports in the long term – say the employers.

Poor Agricultural Land Law

They see an example of misguided policy in the Agricultural Land Law, which, in their opinion, prevents companies with more successful production and processing from winning tenders for state land due to the scoring system.

Employers believe that successful production, past or future financial investments in production, the number of members of family farms, the number of employees in companies, product quality, technical innovations, and investment in irrigation are not adequately valued or scored in these tenders.

– In tenders, land is awarded for a period of 15-25 years, and such scoring criteria, which deprive the most successful of resources in production, can potentially harm agricultural production for decades to come – believe the employers.

They see the path to self-sufficiency in food production through investment in intensive agriculture, industrial production of healthy food, irrigation, increasing yields per hectare in every type of production, adopting new technologies in production and applying precision agriculture, uniting producers and their resources, and fighting against the gray zone.