By-products from Croatian slaughterhouses could potentially have some good buyers in China. What Croatia considers to be meat by-products are valued delicacies over in China, and exporting them could open up a potentially highly profitable door.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 26th of February, 2019, the Chinese are happy with what they’ve seen, and according to the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), ”we’re now awaiting the final findings to sign a bilateral agreement.” These comments come after Dukat and Vindija, as well as several farms and other competent Croatian institutions were recently visited by a Chinese deligation following the organisation of a visit by the Ministry of Agriculture and HGK.
As Vecernji list writes, the reason appears to be that milk and dairy products over in China are becoming more and more sought after and sell at a very good price, so along with the construction of Pelješac bridge, cooperation can now also be expected in terms of agriculture and food, such as via the potentially very profitable export of top quality Croatian cheeses and dairy products.
In addition to this potential wealth of profit, all eyes are currently also on the recent visit of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Tomislav Tolušić to China. Branko Bobetić, the director of Croatiastočar, says the total export of agricultural and food products in the EU from December 2017 to November 2018 stood at 115 billion euros, of which 11 billion was from China.
”Of that [amount] 2.2 billion euro is made up of meat and meat products from the EU, and 1.3 billion is from milk and dairy products, and as total imports of agricultural and food products from China into the EU amounted to 5.7 billion, EU exports are twice as big as imports are,” stated Bobetić. The bulk of these meat exports are, of course, pork, and as China desires exactly the products Croatia considers to be by-products, there is a big chance there.
”Pigs’ heads, bones, stomachs, ears, innards… they are delicaies there. So far, we’ve exported some of it to Hong Kong at an average price of 1.25 euro, while on the Chinese market, which is still closed for by-products from our slaughterhouses, such products have reached twice the price,” said Bobetić, pointing out that based on the estimation of the amount of pigs which end up in Croatia’s biggest slaughterhouses each year, there were about 5-6 thousand tons of pork by-products worth at least seven million euros in exports.
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