CRO AGRICULTURE MINISTER REACTS ON PEASANTS' PROTEST

ZAGREB, July 11 (Hina) - Croatian Agriculture Minister Matej Jankovic on Thursday issued a public statement in response to yesterday's press conference of the Croatian Peasants' Centre. Dissatisfied with a proposed protective price of wheat whose production the Croatian government last year credited interest-free (90 lipas, that is 26 German pfenings, per kilo), the Croatian Peasants' Centre threatened they would not sell wheat at that price, saying that it would have to be imported at a much higher price. This was not the first time that agriculture was being used as a means of raising political tension among the people, Jankovic said in the statement, stressing that the Croatian Peasants' Centre was a pressure group of the Croatian Peasants' Party. In the past few months, the Centre had warned the public they would remain without bread, but as it was visible nowadays, when silos were being filled with new crops, there had been no shortage, the statement said. Jankovic also said that the wheat whose production had not been credited and arranged with the government was selling at a price formulated on the market. Silos in Zupanja and Vinkovci nowadays bought wheat at 1.10 kunas (31 German pfenings) per kilo, he concluded. (hina) ha jn 111709 MET jul 96