Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolušić promises to introduce order in the food industry.
Minister of Agriculture Tomislav Tolušić said on Sunday that Croatia had allowed imports of all kinds of things, and that due to the poor quality imports many Croatian high-quality products cannot find their place on the market, adding that he would bring order to the sector, reports HRT on November 27, 2016.
“Due to the poor quality imports, many Croatian products cannot be sold on the food market. Unfortunately, there is always a problem, not so much of whether Croatian production is competitive or not, since I think that it is competitive regardless of everything, but the problem is the unregulated food market. The fact that the market is unregulated has been demonstrated in recent days”, said the Agriculture Minister, alluding to the food safety issues with meat products.
Inspections have found meat which is not suitable for human consumption, and controls will continue to be performed, he added. “We will continue with the inspections. Our goal is not to terrorize anyone, but just to do our job. We want Croatian citizens to eat good and healthy food, and we will continue with our activities in the future. Unfortunately, I fear that in the last few years the situation on the market went in the completely wrong direction”, said Tolušić.
Asked why Croatia did not have a rule which would precisely determine the time between the slaughter of an animal and its placing on the market, so that the consumers would know exactly how old the meat is, Tolušić said that simply no one had time to adopt such a rule. “We are collecting proposals, one of which is precisely the one mentioned, and we will definitely try to regulate that issue. If there is a similar rule in some other country in the European Union, we should not try to reinvent the wheel”, he added.
The Agriculture Minister reiterated that he had nothing against imports, but that once and for all it must be determined which is the lowest allowed level of quality and health safety of products which are allowed to be placed on the Croatian market.
