Croatia: Agricultural Biotechnology Annual
Croatia is a net food importer and the government policy is geared towards raising agricultural productivity and, to a lesser extent, controlling imports. Although Croatia has adopted the European Union's biotech legislation, Croatia remains part of a group of EU member states that maintain more stringent national biotech policies than the EU norm. Croatia believes its competitive advantage in agricultural products will be realized by seeking a premium for high quality “natural” products rather than competing on volume. Thus, there is a concern about the potential market consequences of adopting pro-biotech policies as well as a strong bias against genetically engineered products as somehow being “unnatural”. Additionally, Croatian politicians and the general public remain misinformed about biotech products and view them as potentially dangerous.
