Status overview and prospects of citrus growing in Croatia

Cilj rada bio je utvrditi stanje proizvodnih kapaciteta i proizvodnje agruma u Republici Hrvatskoj, tržište i potrošnju agruma, vanjskotrgovinsku razmjenu, kao i institucionalni i zakonodavni okvir hrvatskoga agrumarstva. Pomoću SWOT analize identificirani su osnovni čimbenici koji utječu ili mogu utjecati na razvojnu perspektivu hrvatskoga agrumarstva u procesu pristupanja Europskoj uniji. Rezultati SWOT analize pokazuju da strateške razvojne aktivnosti treba usmjeriti tako da maksimalno iskoriste samodostatnost i izvoznu usmjerenost domaće proizvodnje mandarinke, efikasni sustav otkupa plodova mandarinke, kao i postojeću institucijsku podršku agrumarstvu, uz usklađivanje s propisanim posebnim tržišnim standardima za agrume, kako bi se povećala konkurencijska sposobnost hrvatskoga agrumarstva, te izbjegle prijetnje globalnoga institucionalnog i tržišnog pritiska.The aim of this paper was to determine the status of production capacity and citrus production in the Republic of Croatia, the market and consumption of citrus fruits, foreign trade, as well as institutional and legislative framework of the Croatian citrusgrowing. Basic factors have been identified by the use of SWOT, and they make an impact or may make an impact on the development prospects of the Croatian citrus production in the process to accession to the European Union. SWOT analysis results indicate that strategic development activities should be oriented to the maximum use of self-sufficiency, export orientation of domestic production of mandarins, efficient mandarin fruit purchase system and the existing institutional support to citrus-growing by harmonisation with citrus market standards. In this way citrus-growing competitive quality in Croatia should increase, with the aim of avoiding the threat of the global institutional and market pressure