Participating in a video conference of EU agriculture ministers on Monday, Croatia's Minister Marija Vuckovic said that due to a commodities' surplus on the EU market and the consequences of the Covid crisis, Croatia has a negative trend in several agricultural sectors, hence it is preparing a programme of government support.

The main issues discussed at the conference included the situation with agricultural products, food waste, and the ‘farm to fork’ strategy, the Ministry of Agriculture said in a press release.

Minister Vuckovic informed her counterparts of the sectors that have become the most unstable due to a surplus of commodities on the EU market and the consequences of the Covid crisis.

She underlined that thanks to the speedy reaction in the first half of the year, greater damage for the agriculture sector was prevented, however the situation has still not stabilised, particularly in light of new restrictions that on the most part affect the export sector and those sectors related to hospitality.

She said that Croatia is registering negative trends in several sectors, in particular in pig farming, milk production, wine production and potato production. Each of these sectors has recorded a fall in sales and in prices.

Croatia has therefore requested that the European Commission introduces measures to stabilise the market in line with EU legislation while the ministry is at the same time preparing a programme of support from the state budget for the most affected agricultural sectors, the press release said.

The conference also discussed ways to prevent food losses and food waste.

Minister Vuckovic spoke of the plan to prevent and reduce the amount of food waste for the period until 2022 which the government adopted last year. The plan foresees activities directed at advancing the system of food donations and informing and educating the public, particularly school children, seeing that a significant portion of food waste emerges in households.

The ministry has introduced an IT system for donations which enables easier contact between donors and mediators and it has modified the legal framework regulating donations, she said.