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II
Executive summary
in Slovenia provided valuable lessons with regard to negotiating the Agricultural
Chapter with the European Commission (EC). In the following, the main findings
for accelerating both, rural and agricultural sector development, and smoothing
the negotiation of the agricultural chapter are summarised:
Small-scale family farms. A considerable number of farms are quite small, with
three hectares or less. Few family farms exceed ten hectares.
Dairy farms. Dairy production plays an important role in Croatia's agricultural
sector; with roughly 25% of total revenue, it is the largest sub-sector. Further,
95% of dairy cows are kept in family farms, with an average of about three
heads per farm. The DRC analysis was based on a small sample of farms which
were divided into two groups: those with less than 16 cows (four on average),
and those with 16 or more (an average of 47).The DRC value for the former was
3.0, and the latter was 2.2. These high figures indicate that all dairy farmers must
greatly improve their efficiency. Compared to Slovenian dairy farmers, Croatian
milk producer use feed, especially feed concentrates, in an inefficient way. Improvements
can especially be made by investing in better breeds and cowsheds. Also,
investments will be needed for reaching EU hygiene standards in the coming
years. This will put an additional burden on dairy farms for staying in business.
Food processing chain. Analysing revealed comparative export advantage
indicators of agro-food commodities showed that the processing industry is
rather efficient; the deeper the level of processing the more competitive Croatia’s
food sector becomes on EU markets. This observation is made for trade in agrofood
in general as well as in dairy products.
Types of farms. Seventy-five per cent of all farms surveyed are part-time farms.
Based on the share of receipts from non-farm activities, we grouped the parttime
farms into those with 10-50% (called "complementing") and those with
more than 50% (called "subsidiary"). Twelve per cent of the farms in the sample
are complementing farms and 63% are subsidiary farms. Overall, non-farm
income accounts for over a third of the total income over all types of farms.
Professional training, education & farm-related topical information.
Successful farm and non-farm businesses require improved access to appropriate
professional training, education and topical information. Compared to Slovenia,
professional training in agriculture does not play a big role in rural Croatia. The
average level of educational attainment is not fully satisfactory, with only 36%
of farm family members having attended primary school and 46% having had
secondary school education.