Export Marketing of Croatian Baby Beef

Croatia has traditionally been the exporter of livestock and beef. In 1988 Croatia exported a record of 35,7 thousand tons of livestock, worth almost 60 million US $. During the period between 1981 and 1991, the export of beef and processed meat was somewhat smaller, about 12,8 thousand tons, 40 million US $ worth. The most important export destinations were Italy, with almost 90% of all volume and monetary value of export, and Greece. In March 1993 EU has banned the import of livestock and beef from Croatia, due to a scandal with infected cattle. In spite of the subsequent abolition of this ban, Croatian export never really recovered, so today the export of beef amounts to less than a thousand tons. Even though the conditions on the export markets and in the domestic cattle breeding industry have changed, we think that it is possible to achieve the export expansion of Croatian baby beef in the foreign market. This article describes the results of the research conducted on the Italian and Greek market. According to expert opinions and the results of our survey it is evident that, with a certain quality of the product, it would be possible to renew the export of Croatian baby beef to the target markets