This is a EUR525,000 worth twinning project between the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture and Germany's Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture, and Biological-Research Institute of Agriculture and Forestry. It is financed from the CARDS 2002 programme.
The implementation of the project started on February 1 this year and it will last 18 months.
Croatia's Assistant Agriculture Minister Stjepan Mikolcic said the project referred to the adjustment of national legislation with EU standards in the area of phytosanitary control, the education of competent staff, and the development of an information system for the exchange of data on border trade in plants.
The project also envisages the introduction of passes for plants to ensure safe border trade in plants and control of potential pest import.
So far Croatia has been spared a number of plant pests that can cause great damage to crops, it was said at the presentation.