By the end of this year the Croatian-Ukrainian business forum will be organized in Kiev by Ivica Piric, the honorary consul of Ukraine in Croatia and the head of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Kiev forum will gather representatives from the government and the business sector and will mainly be devoted to food processing and production, as well as to opportunities of increasing trade with this huge market of 45 million consumers. The forum will also provide an excellent opportunity for 25 to 30 Croatian companies to present their products as currently there are almost no Croatian products sold in Ukraine, with the exception of Podravka.

''I have already held discussions with some of the largest retail chains in Ukraine which offer exclusive food products, thus I can say that there is a huge interest in Croatian products, primarily in ham, cheese, bacon, sausages, olive oil, wine, various alcoholic beverages, as well as in canned fish, olives, various fish products, lamb etc. The Ukrainian diet is very similar to ours so I think we have a great opportunity to be competitive on that market”, says Piric.

The country of Ukraine is very strong in the production of sunflower oil, fertilizers, metals and coal, thus Piric believes that Croatian companies may also be interested in buying goods from that market. “I believe that the forum will result in first large contracts for our exporters, but also for other forms of cooperation.”

Until the Croatia's accesion to the European Union, every week several charters from Ukraine operated to the Croatian coast. The number of tourists from Ukraine could rise again, especially because visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens should soon be abolished by the European Union.