In the first half of this year, the import of the food totalled 850 million US dollars, another HSS official, Damir Kovacic said at a news conference he and Friscic held on Sunday in Gudovac, some 80 kilometres east of Zagreb, where an international agricultural fair was taking place.
If the import of food in Croatia continues at the current pace, the country would spend two billion dollars for that purpose this year, Friscic said.
The HSS chief added that 21,000 jobs had been lost in Croatia owing to the growth in the food import over the past three years.
One fifth of food products comes from abroad, while Croatian farmers often cannot sell what they produce, Friscic said, warning about what he said catastrophic consequences for the survival of family-run farms in Croatia.
The coverage of the import by the export of the food produced in Croatia is a mere 54 percent, HSS representatives said.