Croatia: Croatia protect autochthon food products

On Monday (July 1st), Croatia will join the EU and gain the opportunity to place its indigenous food products on the Union market, which has about 500 million consumers.

The freedom of movement of goods, services, people and capital are the fundamental values of the EU, allowing Croatian entrepreneurs the opportunity to provide services in any member national.

Antun Plancic, a winemaker from the Croatian island of Hvar, expects that the European public will discover Dalmatia as a new wine attraction next the accession.

"Our small varieties such as plavac mali, posip and others, inclunding appropriate wines like prošek, will get in market flowering," Plancic told us.

"I believe that Croatia will have to increase the production of prosek because of request from the EU," Plancic, one of the 27 registered producers of prosek in the country, said.

According to the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture, the country has protected 12 autochthon food products, inclunding Istrian smoked ham, Varazdin cabbage, additional virgin olive oil from the island of Cres and Zagorje turkey.

"Croatia has rich potential to protect food products, such as cheese from the island Pag, lamb from Lika, Dalmatian bacon and a lot of others. A lot of of these products are by presently in the process of protection," Miroslav Kuskunovic, a spokesman for the agriculture ministry, told us.

Slavonian kulen or kulin is one of the products currently in the process of being protected. The Association of Slavonian kulen-kulin brings together hundreds of small producers from Slavonia, an agricultural region where this traditional sausage is produced from pork.

"It is significant to achieve the [proper] condition that the sausage is produced from domestic Slavonian pigs. It is the purpose of the product, because we want to support development of small rural households. About 95 % of kulen makes the meat, and it takes a lot of manpower. Therefore, processing of meat produced on these farms is increasing the need for job places on peasant farms," Andrija Matic, secretary of the Association of Slavonian kulen-kulin, told us.

However, the EU challenged this recipe, claiming that it distorts market competition and puts other pork producers at a disadvantage. The protection is still pending.

Next a product receives protection in the EU, any commercial misuse of the registered name is subject to sanctions.

The ministry of agriculture said that someday, it intends to step up programmes promoting local products and provide concrete assistance to producers, particularly through the Rural Development Programme.

"It is significant to point out that the Croatian manufacturer or association of manufacturers are to take the initiative and protect the product. Again ... county, city and municipal governments, the media and others [should] spread awareness of the benefits of protecting designations of origin, geographical indications and traditional specialties. [This] should contribute to the competitiveness of our products in the European Union," the ministry said.