FISCHLER: CROATIA MUST MODERNISE ITS AGRICULTURE

ZAGREB, Dec 7 (Hina) - Croatia must reorganise and modernise its agriculture and improve legal, veterinary and phytosanitary conditions in order to make the most of the benefits of the European Union market, European Commission Agriculture and Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler said in Zagreb on Friday. Fischler, who attended a round table in the Croatian parliament, entitled "European Agriculture on the Threshold of the 21st Century", said the EU was not imposing any of said measures on Croatia. Nevertheless, Croatia will have to implement them if it wants to meet the growing demands of Croatian consumers and use the benefits of world trade, he said. Croatian Agriculture Minister Bozidar Pankretic advocated the same view, adding Croatia needed changes in agriculture not only because of the process of European integration but for its own sake. "Those reforms require radical changes in the system of agricultural incentives, a turnabout in the land policy, the strengthening of rural development, and particularly changes in the system of food safety and quality," Pankretic said. Most of Croatia's agricultural products are exported to the EU market but the country has a large deficit in the trade with the EU, as well as with other markets. The import/export ratio is only 60%. The EU covers 93% of its needs with domestic production and imports only those products which it must import, such as tropical fruit. The opening of the European market for Croatia has had a very positive effect on the country's agricultural exports. According to Fischler, in the second half of this year Croatia's agricultural exports to the EU increased by 75% as against the first half of last year. In November last year the EU unilaterally liberalised its market for Croatian products except for wine and beef. The preferential trade regime has also been retained in the Agreement on Stabilisation and Association, which binds Croatia to gradually open its market for EU products. (hina) sb rml