The October 10-14 event features three times as many exhibitors as last year and was opened by Economy Minister Darko Horvat.
"The synergy of agriculture and forestry and small and medium enterprise and the economy in general is the only way to turn this 3% economic growth into something more. In the past six months, we didn't impose solutions to the real sector but went among the people, asking what they needed. Everything you present to us as a good model, I commit to putting into bills," Horvat said, adding that everyone must contribute to the new manufacturing industry model.
A project to internationalise Croatian products is being finalised with a view to giving exhibitors the chance to co-finance presentations at specialised fairs locally, in the European Union and beyond, he said.
The Croatian Chamber of Commerce vice president for agriculture and tourism, Dragan Kovacevic, said the wood industry generated 8% of Croatian exports and that there was global demand for Croatian products.
A surplus of EUR 485 million was generated in wood processing and furniture making in 2017 and of EUR 202 million in the first half of this year, he said, adding that in the first six months of this year the wood industry went up 4.5%, and that accounted for less than 5% of imports.