BioFach is a leading global fair for ecological products, and more than 3,000 exhibitors from about 90 countries will present their products and services from 14 to 17 February.
For the past ten years, the HGK has organised a joint exhibition of Croatian companies at the fair and has co-financed 50% of their costs of attending and exhibiting there. This year 11 Croatian companies are presenting their products, ranging from food products to various fertilisers.
BioFach is an opportunity to present Croatian products and form new partnerships with distributors and producers from other EU countries, the HGK said in a press release. It is estimated that more than 50,000 specialised buyers from around the world will see Croatia's products, it added.
"Compared to the common, single EU market, Croatia is a small agricultural country and it needs to turn to producing products with a greater added value and to forming associations," HGK vice-president Ivan Skoric said at the opening of the fair.
He believes that there is plenty of room for domestic ecological producers, who primarily have to satisfy the growing domestic market, including tourism consumption.
"There is also a big opportunity in exports and when we combine the quality of ecological products and local and traditional features of domestic products, success is guaranteed," Skoric believes.
He added that more and more land is being cultivated with ecological products, which is encouraging. More than 6% of Croatia's area is cultivated with ecological products, which puts Croatia at the EU average. The value of the EU market for ecological products is estimated at 24 billion euros or 75 billion euros on the global scale, the HGK said.
There are more than 3,500 domestic producers and processors in a community of 350,000 in the EU who supply the EU market of 500 million consumers with ecological products.
"As far as Croatia is concerned, estimates indicate a value of about 100 million euros a year in the retail of ecological products, which is a little more than 2% of total food retail," Skoric said.