A business conference of Večernji list was held in Koprivnica

Koprivnica, September 11, 2024. – The director of ENNA Group, Boštjan Napast, participated on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, in Koprivnica at the conference "The Croatia We Need" organized by Večernji list.

There was a panel discussion on food as a geopolitical and strategic issue, with Mr. Napast The event was attended by Martina Dalić, CEO of Podravka, Emil Tedeschi, CEO of Atlantic Group, and Mirko Ervačić, director of Osatina Group. They discussed whether Croatia can take advantage of its favorable geographical position and climatic environment to reduce dependency on imports in the food sector, increase productivity, and become more competitive at the EU level.

The director of Enna spoke about the business of Enna Fruit and said that ENNA wants partnership and strategic relations with small producers.

We want to offer them stability and motivate them to invest in new technologies for the long term. One of the most important reasons is climate change, which will force all of us to make changes and adopt different methods of production. We succeeded in that with mandarin production. We brought Croatian mandarin to foreign markets. This is what we do with vegetables as well, for example, with broccoli in Virovitica and cauliflower in Opuzen. It is very important that we have local, sustainable, and quality food. We believe that Croatia's potential lies in having natural resources, water, and land, so it is actually a great privilege to offer quality food to the local population and region - said Mr. Temptation.

He emphasized that climate conditions are changing, average temperatures are rising, so for example, fruits like mandarins and apples have ripened much earlier this year, and the yields are significantly smaller, which is why the application of new technologies and the introduction of more resistant varieties are important, highlighting cooperation with partners on new mandarin varieties.

In addition to climate change, a particular challenge is the issue of demographics, specifically the lack of a workforce, which ENNA also faces during the apple harvest season, as there are not enough workers for such jobs in Croatia and throughout Europe.

- One of the challenges is also how it will change the demographic picture of Europe and how we will integrate these people into our society so that we do not encounter what is already visible today in France or Belgium - said Mr. Temptation.

The full report from the "Croatia We Need" conference can be read on vecernji.hr.