The assistance is estimated to have resulted in a USD100 million increase in the purchase of domestic farm produce, USAID Croatia Director William Jeffers said at an event marking the fourth anniversary of USAID's assistance to Croatia's agriculture and agribusiness.
During the four years USAID provided, through projects boosting linkage and competitiveness, as well as revenues in economically distressed areas, technical assistance for more than 100 partner organisations, including associations, cooperatives and companies representing more than 11,000 family farms, Jeffers said.
Agriculture Minister Petar Cobankovic said that USAID had provided assistance to sectors which needed it the most - milk production, pig breeding and horticulture.
He reiterated that his ministry had intensively worked towards creating conditions that would increase the competitiveness of domestic production.
Cobankovic said that the ultimate goal of the strategy of agricultural development was changing the production structure to increase revenues and improve product competitiveness.
Development is strategically oriented towards farming, higher fruit and vegetable output, and indigenous products, the minister said.
The minister said that since 2005 the output of agricultural products had been higher than the import - in 2005 exports rose by 26 percent, while imports were at eight percent, and in 2006 exports grew by 30 percent and imports by 14 percent.
The export-import ratio in 2005 was 57 percent, in 2006 it was around 65 percent and this year it is projected at more than 70 percent, Cobankovic said.