November 21, 2011

Croatia's agriculture chamber seeks crop damage payment

The Croatian government should have allotted HRK300 million (US$54.05 million) rather than HRK30 million (US$5.41 million) to pay crop farmers for damage caused by natural disasters that had occurred by November 1, said the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture (HPK) said Friday (Nov 18).

The government set aside HRK30 million (US$5.41 million) to compensate only those farmers whose crop damage exceeded 60%, and HRK2.5 million (US$450,400) to compensate vegetable growers.

The HPK said this was discrimination, adding that the vegetable growers should have been awarded HRK17 million (US$3.06 million), as proposed by the HPK, which would be equal to the amount that was allocated to vegetable producers in European countries.

The HPK said that the government's intervention was disproportionate to actual needs. "The coverage of just 1.5% of the damage assessed is an underestimation of the farmers, agriculture and domestic producers," it said.