Agriculture Minister Petar Cobankovic said on Monday that Croatian farmers would be able to count on full incentive amounts as of the first year of Croatia's membership in the European Union, namely EUR 380 per hectare, and that Croatia was the first acceding country that had won such favourable conditions when it came to incentives.
"Croatian farmers will be able to count on the full financial amount of EUR 373 million which, when divided by the number of hectares, is EUR 380 per hectare," Cobankovic said on Croatian Television.
Forty-five per cent of the amount will come from the EU and the rest can be added from the national budget, he said.
Asked why Croatia had only a million hectares of farmland entered into the EU's records, when some experts warned that Croatia's farmland amounted to as many as three million hectares, Cobankovic said records and recordings showed that "our land that is in use amounts to about one million and 93,000 hectares."
Commenting on the opposition's demand that incentives be given on the basis of output and not farmland, the minister said Croatia must follow the EU's common agricultural policy.
Asked if the until now negative foreign trade in agricultural products would change upon Croatia's accession to the EU, the minister said the current situation was not that bad.
"We import about US$ 2.2 billion in food and export $1.4 billion, but when one adds the export of food in tourism, we have a surplus of about $500 million."
Cobankovic said Croatia's position was also very good regarding the sale of its farmland to foreigners, that it was given a seven-year transitional period during which foreigners would not be able to buy farmland, plus an option for a three-year extension.
