Croatia Increasingly Importing Food – Surplus in Wheat Production, Lack of Flour-based Products

The import of agricultural food products in Croatia grew compared to last year by 10%, from 769 to 844 million euros.

Consequently, the export-import coverage ratio in the country dropped from 67 to 65%.

On the other hand, the export of agricultural food products from Croatia was worth EUR 552 million in the first quarter. This is a growth of 8% compared to the same period last year (EUR 513 million).

– The most represented products among the imports are meat and meat products, products based on grains and starch, milk and dairy products, as well as fruit. These are all products with a high added value, which in fact says that we have a bad production structure and that this needs to change. As for the exports, we mostly export grains, fish, various highly processed food products and products based on flour and starch. To illustrate, we import EUR 20 million worth of frozen baked products a year. This shows that we need to increase our production capacities, invest in innovations, new technologies, digitization and create more competitive products – said the vice-president for agriculture and tourism of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, Dragan Kovacevic, adding that Croatia needs to direct its production toward increasing productivity and self-sufficiency through strategies and policies.

Croatian Chamber of Commerce

import of agricultural products

import of food

Dragan Kovačević