ZAGREB, March 6, 2018 – Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolušić said at the opening of the 3rd edition of the national agricultural conference “Slavonika” that investments on a permanent basis facilitated the improvement of local production and the quality of local products.
He recalled that the ministry had offered 500 million kuna for projects to be funded under the Rural Development financing scheme, and pledged even more funding for 2018.
Tolušić said that, in the European Union, member-states have been absorbing EU funds for agriculture for 20 years, while Croatia, which joined the Union in mid-2013, started using these funds in the last two years.
“Although it is tourism that fills the state budget to a large extent, I believe that our future only partly lies in tourism and much more in the industry and primarily in agriculture in Slavonia,” the minister said.
Some 350 participants gathered for the Slavonika conference in the largest eastern city of Osijek.