Growing organic on the rise in Croatia
Organic agriculture in Croatia
Croatia would be able to supply raw organic products to the EU, but more organic products are imported than exported at this point of time. This could change in the future, but structural changes, a better ecological expertise and investments from abroad would be required.
There are currently about 340 companies working according to organic standards on an average of 2.4 hectares of land. The largest of these company has about 200 hectares of land. Altogether, about 5,000 hectares were managed according to organic standards in 2006, representing 0.6 % of the total agricultural land.
Mainly cereals are cultivated, like wheat and corn, followed by grassland, herbs, fruit, wine and olives. There are also about 17,000 hectares of ecological “bee pasture”, of which the certification is worldwide unique. On a large area, wild plants like herbs, berries and mushrooms, which play an important role in the Balkan States, are collected.
In 2001 and 2002, the first ecological guidelines following the European Regulations 2092/91 and the international standards of IFOAM, were released. Croatia has its own logo for organic products. These products are inspected by private institutes, which are accredited by the government.
Source: Ost-West Contact
http://www.organic-market.info/bio-markt/en_inhalte/inh_index.htm?link=Meldungen&catID=0&docID=477
Formatted for CROWN by Marko Puljić
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