The protesters, who will arrive in Zagreb tomorrow morning in some 1,000 tractors, will demand the replacement of Agriculture Minister Bozidar Pankretic whom they hold responsible for the failure of the government to implement a number of agreements with farmers.
Protest leader Ivica Miketek told Hina that the situation in the farming sector was unbearable because of the import of milk and other agricultural produce, the government's failure to pay farming grants for 2008, and farmers' having difficulty paying off loans.
Pankretic said the protest was a legitimate right of farmers, but refuted accusations that grants were not given in their entirety and that the government was late in taking measures to fend off the crisis in the milk-producing sector.
Speaking about measures against excessive imports, the minister said that Croatia had sent a request to the European Commission regarding what he called dumping prices, adding that the measures were aimed at preventing situations in which a kilogram of imported cheese was cheaper than milk.
Pankretic said that he would propose additional measures for rescheduling loans granted to farmers and that for that purpose he had already held talks with directors of commercial banks on ways of helping farmers.
The minister presented statistics about a 4.1-percent milk production increase in the country, adding that 82 percent of the produced milk met EU quality standards.
However, Croatia's milk exports have dropped 12 percent, while imports have risen 25 percent, he said.
As regards milk prices, the average price in the EU is 26.57 euros per 100 kg, as against the average price in Croatia, which is 28.07 euros per 100 kg, he said.
Pankretic added that the current crisis in the dairy industry was a consequence of the European crisis.