"Although the current prosciutto production meets less than 50% of the demand in Croatia, the encouraging fact is that in the last five years, 150 million kuna has been invested in new plants for prosciutto production," Kovacevic says adding that prosciutto can be an additional value for the tourist trade.
The two-day international festival in the town in the Dalmatian hinterland was opened on Friday, and apart from the promotion of prosciutto, also homemade cheese, wines, honey and other local food were put on display during the event.
Five years ago, 250,000 prosciutto hams were produced in Croatia, and currently the annual production is 400,000. The portion of domestic raw material in those final products has risen from 10% to 50% over the past 10 years. Consumption of prosciutto has increased by 50% over the past five years.
Four Croatian prosciutto types protected under European Union's quality schemes
So far, Drnis, Istrian, Krk and Dalmatian prosciuttos have been included in the EU register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications. Thea are among the 21 Croatian traditional products protected by this EU register.