The fourth edition of the festival called "SirCroFest" was organised by the association of small dairies of Croatia and the Croatian agricultural and forestry consulting service with the aim of promoting traditional cheeses and family-run farms and dairies in the country,
The chairwoman of the association of small cheese-makers in Zagreb County said that recently more and more milk farms started to turn to cheese production.
In February this year, it was reported that there were six thousand active milk producers in Croatia and that last year a drastic drop in production was stopped so that sector now expects measures to revitalise cattle farming.
Even though in the last few months of 2017, there was an increase in milk production on the year, total production for the entire year was about 2% less than in 2016.
DZS: Cattle and goat farming on decline, while pig and sheep breeding rises in 2017
In Croatia, cattle and goat breeding as well as the production of cow's milk and eggs decreased last year, whereas pig and sheep breeding as well as the production of sheep and goat milk and wool increased, according to figures released by the national statistical office (DZS) in June this year.
Thus, cattle breeding went down by 3.2% while, on the other hand, the breeding of pigs and sheep increased by 9.1% and by 5.1% respectively.
Rearing goats dropped by 35.2%, while poultry farming remained the same as in 2016.
Last year, cow's milk production decreased by 3.3% year on year to 629.5 million litres.
Sheep milk production increased by 9.6% to 8.8 million litres and goat milk went up by 5.7% to 10.4 million litres.