The founding assembly of the Croatian Sectoral Organisation for Pork Meat (HRSM) was held on Monday in Osijek. Producers, processors, abattoirs and traders are thereby gaining a common platform for regulating the pork market for the first time, and Agriculture Minister David Vlajčić described the founding as a historic moment for Croatian pig farming.
Vlajčić assessed that pig farmers, like producers in other sectors, had been left to their own devices for years and remained uncompetitive due to individual market appearances. The Ministry, he said, had spent months bringing together representatives from the entire chain to ensure the organisation became operational.
The aim, according to the minister, is for producers to take a more active role in planning production and placing goods, and for the market to be regulated from production to retail shelves, including contractual relations that ensure stable purchasing.
Croatia covers 50 to 55 per cent of its own needs in pork meat production, with the long-term goal of increasing this self-sufficiency. Vlajčić announced the founding of similar organisations in the beef sector as well as fruit and vegetables, and considers them necessary in arable farming as well.
He also addressed African swine fever: by 10 July, 53 cases of infection in domestic animals had been recorded, all in Virovitica-Podravina and Osijek-Baranja counties, with around 1,520 pigs euthanised. In the hunting grounds of these two counties, around 200 positive wild boar had been recorded, prompting the minister to call on breeders to consistently implement biosecurity measures.
Coordinator of the Initiative Board Krešimir Kuterovac reported that the assembly gathered around 80 per cent of primary pork producers, the same proportion of processors, and 30 per cent of representatives from retail chains. The model whereby stakeholders themselves negotiate market rules, he stressed, functions in France, Spain and Italy, and once the Ministry of Agriculture recognises the organisation, the common rules will apply to the entire market, regardless of membership.
