In the first nine months of 2020, the export-import ratio of agricultural and food products reached 69%, up 8.11 percentage points on the year as a result of higher exports and lower imports, the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday.

Citing State Bureau of Statistics data, the ministry said the export of agricultural and food products in said period totalled €1.7 billion, up 5% from the first nine months of 2019, while imports totalled €2.5 billion, down 7.3%.

The resulting deficit was €758.8 million, down 26.6% on the year.

Agricultural and food products accounted for 15.86% of total commodity exports and 14.56% of imports in the first nine months of 2020, and the most exported of those products were cereals (€205.4 million).

The EU market accounted for 65.83% of Croatia’s exports and 86.16% of imports of agricultural and food products. Central European Free Trade Agreement countries were second with 24.65% of exports and 7.83% of imports.

The biggest export market in the first nine months of 2020 for those products was Italy, where Croatia exported €300.8 million worth of goods, which accounted for 17.76% of all agricultural and food exports, up 21.9% on the year.

Croatia imported €263 million worth of those products from Italy, down 16.6%, resulting in a €37.6 million surplus.

The Agriculture Ministry said Germany was one of Croatia’s most important trade partners, being the country from which Croatia has been importing the most since 2013 and among the top five for Croatian exports in the past four years.

The ministry recalled that in January Germany chose Croatia as the partner country for the Green Week international fair in Berlin, which featured 50 Croatian exhibitors and registered over 400,000 visitors.

That participation contributed to the export of €127.2 million worth of agricultural and food products to Germany in the first nine months of 2020, up 13% on the year, as well as the import of €365.9 million worth, down 5%, whereby the deficit was reduced by 12%.