The conference, taking place on Thursday and Friday in the eastern town of Vukovar, was organised by the HGK in cooperation with the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Agronomy, the Rudjer Boskovic Institute and the Croatian Agriculture and Forestry Advisory Service.
"Croatia, unfortunately, is a big food importer. Since 2012, meaning before EU accession, the foreign trade deficit has increased from 740 million euros to over a billion euros. If we look at the first eight months of this year, the foreign trade deficit has increased by an additional 50 million euros. On the other hand, the fisheries sector has recorded a trade surplus of over 45 million euros, in which aquaculture exports have a considerable share, of 82 million euros or 45 percent," HGK vice-president for agriculture and tourism Dragan Kovacevic said.
The HGK said that aquaculture production had reached almost 17,000 tonnes last year and that mariculture was growing steadily.
However, despite all the efforts made, such as 50-year leases and investments, the production capacity of freshwater fisheries has not stabilised yet, standing at 3,200 tonnes annually, which is partly due to drought and diseases, Kovacevic said, adding that despite the challenges he believes in further growth because of new investments and better preparedness for absorbing EU funding.
Assistant agriculture minister Ante Misura said that the National Strategic Plan for Aquaculture projected a production of 24,050 tonnes in 2020.
"The production plan for white sea-fish and tuna is almost fulfilled, while in other segments we need to undertake activities to fulfil the production plans. We believe that this primarily depends on investments which are ongoing and which are being planned in the 2014-202 programme period through the implementation of the Operational Programme for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries," Misura said.
As part of this programme, agreements worth HRK 1.2 billion have been concluded so far with 1,828 beneficiaries, and HRK 461.9 million has been paid to 1,614 beneficiaries, he said.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.42)