Current situation

Most of the 2002 imports were for the meat processing industry. Croatian meat processors import significant quantities of pork because of an overall deficit in quality domestic products. Foreign suppliers are preferred because domestic supplies are unreliable, and there are often problems with excess fat. Obsolete breeding technology and outdated genetics are the cause of most of the quality problems. Each January Croatia has a surplus of pigs from small family farms that meat processors do not like to buy because of excess fat.

Croatia's hog sector began to experience production declines in 1991, and the sector has never recovered. Currently, domestic pork production meets about 80 percent of market needs. Croatia produces 85,000 to 90,000 MT of pork per year. Total consumption is estimated at about 110,000 MT per year, with imports accounting for roughly 20,000 MT per year. Per capita consumption of fresh pork in 2001 was about 18kg. Total pork consumption is predicted to grow to 138,000 MT by 2005.

Croatia had an outbreak of hog cholera in the area of Banija in 2002. To prevent the spread of the disease and to protect domestic pork production, the following measures were undertaken:

• At the end of 2002, imports and transshipments of pork, pork products, and live pigs from Romania were banned;

• In 2002, the import and transshipments of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and their products were banned due to FMD concerns from all countries except: Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Guyana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Ireland, Island, Italy, Japan, Canada, Korea, Costa Rica, Cuba, Latvia, Latvia, Luxemburg, Madagascar, Hungary, Macedonia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Germany, panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Salvador, Singapore, United States of America, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Vanuatu.

• As of June 10, 2003, imports of live cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, poultry, fish and products originating from these animals are banned from the Category I and II countries under GBR assessed by SSC because of BSE fears (this is an obvious attempt by the Croatian Government to protect domestic producers from imports.)
  The ban is not applied on shipments from: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Republic Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, United kingdom, and North Ireland where BSE cases have been discovered. The import ban does not apply to shipments of cattle, sheep, goat and products from Bulgaria and Romania. The ban is not applied if the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture can receive confirmation from some official export body that the shipped animals where not fed with animal proteins other than fish meal for feed (except in ruminant feed, milk and milk products, gelatin that does not originate from ruminant animals, and di-calcium phosphates and hydro isolated protein that did not originate from farm house debris).

Most 2002 imported products fell under the following categories:

• HS 0203295530 (de boned back) $10.4 million and
• HS 02032915 (breasts with under belly) $ 6.8 million.

According to recent trade data, total pork imports where $39.9 million. This amount represents an 11 percent increase in import value compared with 2001, despite the import bans. The biggest suppliers of pork for Croatia are: Hungary, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, and Austria. Currently, U.S. exporters may not ship to Croatia, in part, because there is no negotiated USDA/FSIS meat export certificate.

The Croatian government requires trichinosis testing for pork imports despite the fact that freezing has been proven to be an effective control. There are ongoing negotiations between USDA and the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture to modify the Trichinosis statement that is currently required for pork imports.

Croatian pork exports are negligible. In 2001, there were no pork exports from Croatia. In 2002, Croatia exported US $218,742 to Italy, Hungary, Holland, and Germany. Exports of Croatian pork are blocked because Croatia has no hog cholera vaccination program. This is mandatory in EU. The EU is also afraid of trichinosis in Croatian pork (see HR3003).

The government would like to transform Croatia into a pork exporter, but it has not elaborated on how this goal will be accomplished. There are some indications that a protective price for pork may be established.

To read the full report, including tables, please click here (PDF Format)

Source: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service - 9th October 2003