Polish exports to Croatia have doubled in the last four years, reaching EUR 600 million in 2016, which is 15.4% more than in 2015. That makes Poland the 7th biggest exporter to Croatia. Even though Croatian exports to Poland in 2016 dropped by around 6% to EUR 166.5 million, we believe that Croatian entrepreneurs will find a way to reverse that trend, Polish Ambassador Maciej Grzegorz Szymanski said, whose term in Croatia expires this year.
The ambassador said that next month the Polish maker of electric buses Ursus would promote its products in Croatia and look for production partners, noting that this was yet another example of Polish business people's and investors' interest in Croatia.
The interest is evident in other areas as well, such as agriculture, trade, logistics, real estate and tourism.
Marek Suchowiejko, the secretary of the Polish Embassy's department for trade and investment promotion, said that Poles loved and increasingly chose Croatia for their vacations and that the number of Polish arrivals was expected to grow from 758,000 in 2016 to around one million in the next couple of years. In 2016, Poles were the fifth most numerous visitors and this year there could be even more Polish tourists because they consider Croatia a safe destination with good hotel and other infrastructure and a good price and quality ratio, said Suchowiejko.
A growing number of Poles are buying properties in Croatia, and every week they buy one to two very valuable properties in Split and Dubrovnik, he said.
When asked if the crisis in the Croatian food and retail concern Agrokor had any effect on Polish entrepreneurs, considering food imports, both Suchowiejko and Ambassador Szymanski said it did not because the volume of that cooperation was very small.
The director of corporate communications at the Polish airline LOT, Adrian Kubicki, announced an increase in the number of flights this year from Warsaw to Zagreb, and to Zadar and Split, as well as the introduction of a new, summer service to Pula.
LOT introduced flights to Croatia two years ago and we are satisfied with the results, with flights almost entirely sold out, Kubicki said, adding that in April alone, LOT saw a 20% increase in the number of passengers travelling to Croatia compared to 2016.
Ambassador Szymanski also commented on news in Poland's political life, saying that the country's new government had formed a ministry of development to integrate economy, finance and other areas with the aim of carrying out major changes and reforms and making it possible for Poland to reach around 78% of the EU GDP per capita average by 2020, and 90-95% of the EU GDP per capita average by 2030.
He also noted that Poland's GDP was expected to grow by 3.5% this year and by around 3.8% in 2018.