As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, back at the end of last week, the Croatian Baby Beef Association for Fattening and Breeding requested the state’s help for breeders in achieving cost competitiveness as cheap foreign imports dominate the scene.
The goal of the Association is to place young Croatian beef, known as baby beef, on store shelves and in the kitchens of restaurants and hotels, said the new president of the Baby Beef Association Zvonko Sirjan, who was elected at the annual election assembly held on Friday at the Bjelovar Fair in Gudovac.
Fodder prices have risen, while the price of meat has remained stable and has not kept pace with this increase, explained Sirjan, adding that due to the high price of fodder, Croatian livestock farmers are losing four to five kuna per kilogram of meat, which quickly adds up. Therefore, in order to “survive the winter”, the intervention of the relevant ministry is necessary, he believes.
“As one of the short-term measures, we expect state intervention. Through product labelling we want to get higher prices that will help our sector survive. We’re also proposing the opening of markets such as the Turkish and Israeli ones, and we certainly expect Croatian producers to be promoted and Croatian products to be sold through retail, and not only from imports,” said Sirjan.
“We managed to brand our young Croatian beef baby beef and we’ll continue to work on that. Our Association needs to respond to all of the challenges of the times and global trends where meat that comes to Croatian stores from elsewhere has a far lower price and we must try to resist that. We want to present ourselves to our consumers as serious producers who can guarantee quality, safety and a healthy product from Croatian farms,” said Sirjan of the plight of Croatian livestock farmers who are rightfully worried about a difficult winter.
The Croatian Baby Beef Association is otherwise the oldest and largest cattle fattening association, founded back in 2000. It currently has 330 members, Croatian livestock farmers, who raise 120,000 cattle across the country.
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