This year's harvest of mandarins is expected to total some 60,000 tonnes, with farmers expecting to get a wholesale price of 3 kuna (€0.40) per kilogramme, association of mandarin farmers from the Neretva river valley in souther Croatia said on Friday.

Out of that total, about 15,000 tonnes will be sold in the domestic market, another 12,000 tonnes in other markets in the region, and another 27,000 tonnes in other markets in the EU, meaning that the market surplus will amount to about 6,000 tonnes.

Over the last few years Croatian mandarin farmers had received subsidies from the EU to pay for the surplus produce and offset the losses for mandarins which would normally have been sold in the Russian market before Russia had introduced sanctions on fruit imports from the EU.

Before the sanctions were imposed in 2014 in response to EU’s own sanctions against Russia over the annexation of Crimea, Neretva valley farmers used to export around 8,000 tonnes of mandarins to Russia every year.

But this year EU assistance will be gone, head of the Neretva valley fruit farmers’ association, Neven Mataga, told state news agency Hina, and farmers are hoping that the Croatian government could provide some funding for a alternative plans to buy surplus mandarins.

It is estimated that the government should secure about 12-15 million kuna (€1.6-2 million) to farmers to minimise the losses caused by Russian sanctions on farmers.

The harvesting of mandarins in the Neretva river valley in southern Croatia – an area famous for mandarins because of the excellent climate and soil conditions there – usually starts in mid-September, and last until October or November.

(€1 = 7.42 kuna)

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