The Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr. Miroslav Božić, visits Podravka

The Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and the Head of the Administration for Agricultural Policy and Rural Development, Mr. Miroslav Božić, accepted an invitation to visit Podravka. On Thursday 19 April he met some twenty managers of Podravka led by Damir Polančec, member of the Management Board. The meeting concerned the most recent steps that the Government negotiating team, including Mr. Božić along with Neven Mimica and Olga Spevec, is making in the negotiations on the liberalisation of trade with the member countries of the European Union, CEFTA, EFTA, and other countries. Mr Božić‘s responsibility in this team lies in the area of agriculture and the food industry. At the meeting, the managers of Podravka discussed the problems Podravka faces while doing business on the markets of countries with which Croatia has already signed bilateral agreements on free trade, such as Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, because these countries do not always comply with some of the provisions stipulated in the agreement. The beginning of negotiations with the Republic of Yugoslavia, where Podravka is the first Croatian company to have opened a subsidiary, was also the focus of attention. As well as explaining the moves that the Government is making in order to resolve these misunderstandings, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr. Miroslav Božić, offered Podravka direct and open contact with the Croatian negotiating team, including himself in person, in order to be able to react to such events more promptly and efficiently in the future.

Since a kind of free trade zone involving 27 countries where Croatian producers would have tariff benefits, and which should be established by the end of July this year, mostly covers the most significant export markets of Podravka, such cooperation is likely to have a considerable impact on the future business of Podravka.