Vegetable Growers: Retail Chains Are Blackmailing Us with Purchase Prices
Producers warn of pressure from cheap imports, lack of state support, and unfair market conditions that are stifling domestic production despite great potential.
Producers warn of pressure from cheap imports, lack of state support, and unfair market conditions that are stifling domestic production despite great potential.
Croatian vegetable growers came out on Saturday, August 9, 2026, with sharp accusations against a system that, they claim, systematically stifles domestic production. Their business is becoming unsustainable under the pressure of cheap imports and the absence of concrete state support, while supermarket shelves and restaurant offerings are full of foreign goods.
"While we go under, shelves are full of imported goods," reads the headline of an article that sums up the frustration of a sector that feels neglected. Restaurateurs and the tourism sector, growers point out, regularly opt for imported food due to lower prices, while domestic family farms struggle to find their way onto supermarket shelves and hotel kitchens.
Professor Ivo Grgić from the Faculty of Agriculture in Zagreb highlighted the paradox of the tourist season. There is no guarantee that guests on the Adriatic will be offered local produce. As a concrete example, he cited tomatoes, explaining that individual producers cannot ensure the continuity of supply that large hotel systems require, which is why they turn to big suppliers.
Energy expert Davor Štern shares the concern about the state of agriculture. In his view, Croatia should pay more attention to consolidating agricultural land and encouraging producer cooperation, especially since the country imports more and more food year after year, further weakening the domestic production base.
Marina Galović, president of the Vegetable Growers' Association of the City of Zagreb and Zagreb County, dismissed the notion that the problem lies in producers' reluctance to organize. The core of the problem, she says, lies in market conditions. Stores and restaurants prefer buying cheaper products from Italy, while they see domestic items as too expensive. A serious accusation she made adds further concern: some imported vegetables are later marketed as locally grown.
Galović emphasizes that Croatia has enough capacity for significantly greater vegetable production, but producers do not want to expand production without secure market access. "Retail chains are blackmailing us with purchase prices that are often lower than production costs," she said, pointing to the absurd situation domestic producers find themselves in.
An additional blow to producers comes from drought and high irrigation costs, and due to limited permits for blue diesel, many will be forced to halt operations during the summer months, they say. Their request for larger quotas has so far received no response from the authorities.
Prices at farmers' markets, they stress, cannot be compared to those in supermarkets because sales volumes are significantly smaller, while rental and production costs are high. Local vegetables, grown according to EU standards, often have higher costs and lower yields compared to imported ones. The result is that more and more family farms are operating on the edge of profitability.
Without better protection for domestic production, fairer market conditions, and changes to the legal framework, they warn, Croatian vegetable growing will continue to lose competitiveness, despite the great production potential the country undoubtedly possesses.
