​Gourmet Croatia conference held in Ilok

Croatia's gastronomy is good and diverse but local producer are still unable to secure secure sufficient quantities of farm products, a closing conference of the "Gourmet Croatia" project heard on Monday in the eastern Croatian town of Ilok. State-secretary in the Ministry of Tourism Frano Matusic said that surveys show that gastronomy and enjoying food is one of the main motives for tourist arrivals and that this was a great opportunity for food and wine producers.

He announced an action plan for the development of gastro-tourism so that in line with the Strategy of Developing Croatia's Tourism to 2020, Croatia could become a recognisable gastronomic tourist destination and be incorporated in the 20 top tourist destinations in the world. He said that 15% of all of Croatia's agricultural products is related to the tourism sector which is no where near enough to satisfy demands in that sector.

Assistant Agriculture Minister Krunoslav Karalic recalled that Croatia currently has 20 products with protected designation of origin and geographical origin.

Participants of the final conference organised by the WYG International Development Consultancy, the Tourism Institute and Institute for International Relations in cooperation with a large number of partners at the local and national level concluded that in the next few years Croatia has to strengthen its efforts on establishing a quality institutional, legislative and strategic framework, creating a gastronomic experience destination and to strengthen its international recognisability.

The "Gourmet Croatia," project was valued at 68 million euro with 85% coming from EU funds and the remaining 15% was secured by the Economy Ministry. During the 18 months the project was implemented Croatia's gastronomic offer was analysed, a strategic framework and guidelines were written as well as guidelines for the development of a brand of current and future gastronomic destinations, the head of the industrial policy section at the economy ministry, Robert Blazinovic said. (Hina)

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