With imports and exports affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the argument for self-sufficiency has never been stronger. Owing to that, Konzum announced that it would cooperate with Croatian producers who usually sell their produce on now closed markets, and allow them to continue selling those products on the popular store’s shelves. SPAR, another popular store in Croatia, has done the same.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 4th of April, 2020, SPAR has so far cooperated with sixty new Croatian producers in the field of agriculture, as well as local farmers who are no longer able to sell their products on the market because of the measures put into place in Croatia to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
”In the first few days we bought salads, packaged tomatoes, leeks, chard, parsley, spinach and more from small producers and OPGs and secured their placement on the shelves of SPAR and INTERSPAR stores.
Through the Osatina distributor, we’re also buying young onions from OPG Ivan Mrašić, OPG Špiranec Mladen, OPG Rasinec Ana, OPG Vedriš Ivica and OPG Veličan Damir. In addition, some products will be sold under our brand Gardens of Croatia (Vrtovi Hrvatske), such as Balog OPG beans, OPG Vesna Bašić apples, OPG Raos-Vrgorac garlic, and cauliflower and broccoli from the company Tlzit.
With this move, we’re expanding our cooperation with a large number of our existing Croatian producers. We’d like to emphasise that a large number of them are operating under the Gardens of Croatia brand. We’re proud that SPAR supermarkets and INTERSPAR hypermarkets are the stores with the most Croatian products in them,” a statement from SPAR read.
If you understand Croatia, check out the SPAR YouTube channel for more information on buying fruit and vegetables from Croatian producers:
For more on coronavirus in Croatia, as well as lengthy scientific texts from eminent Croatian scientist Igor Rudan, make sure to follow our dedicated section.
