Croat cheese 'threat' spotlights Euro doubts

By Marko Kovac
Klostar Vojakovacki, Croatia

The smell of fresh manure wafts through the lively barn in the small Croatian village of Klostar Vojakovacki.

The moo of an awakening cow marks the start of another day of hard work for Marija Ivankovic.

Croats prefer fatty full-bodied cream and light fresh-made cheese

These idyllic green fields and woods are the home of her family's production of Croatia's traditional food - sir i vrhnje, or cream and cheese.

Marija proudly talks of her nine cows and small family-run production on a farm an hour's drive from the bustling capital city of Zagreb.

As Croatia prepares for membership talks with the European Union early next year, however, Marija and many other small producers fear that Brussels regulations will force them to give up their only source of income.

Many generations of Croats have grown up on cream and cheese, a homemade delicacy from the north of the country. They despise its factory-made commercial equivalents and would rather stick to the fatty full-bodied cream and light fresh-made cheese they call "the real thing".

But there are fears that the cost of such home production will skyrocket as the government prepares to negotiate sensitive reforms of its agriculture to meet EU standards.

Quality

Farmers nervously eye newspaper headlines speculating that the cream and cheese producers will have to keep their products specially refrigerated in bringing them to the marketplace.

Nobody has died of it. This is healthy stuff and we don't understand why we would need to adopt any new regulations Marija Ivankovic

More strict EU hygiene controls on farms would add to an existing bureaucracy with which farmers are already struggling. The government has done little to explain future reforms, leaving farmers perplexed.

"We regularly check our cows and have been producing cream and cheese for decades," says Marija Ivankovic.

"Nobody has died of it. This is healthy stuff and we don't understand why we would need to adopt any new regulations."

She fears the worst: "If EU membership raises our costs, this would mean the end of small household production. Only big commercial producers would survive and they don't produce quality."

She's not the only one worried about the extinction of quality and tradition - her customers on Dolac, Zagreb's biggest open market, scoff at the idea of cream and cheese being put under EU regulation.

Not that the Croatian gastronomic fight will take place on cream and cheese front solely. No one is very happy at the prospect of abandoning other home-grown traditions.

We hope that there will be a future for producers, especially small-scale ones, who are a predominant part of our farming community Miroslav Bozic Government expert

The local pig slaughter and the home production of the widely popular hard liquor rakija are also seen as threatened.

The government's agriculture expert, Miroslav Bozic, is well aware of possible dire consequences.

"We hope that there will be a future for producers, especially small-scale ones, who are a predominant part of our farming community," he said.

EU popularity

Increased awareness of how tough the adoption of EU standards will be has prompted many Croats to turn their backs on Brussels.

A recent poll published in the biggest daily newspaper, Jutarnji List, has suggested a rapid fall in support for EU membership - only 58% of Croats would now like to see their country join the union, almost 30% less then year ago. As reforms have stepped up, the No vote has been growing stronger.

The government believes Croatia will be ready for the EU by 2007. It wants to join as soon as possible - meaning complex EU laws will have to be adopted in this ex-communist country in a short period of just two years.

Farmers like Marija Ivankovic hope their production won't fall victim to a transition process that is leaving many in Eastern Europe longing for their lost traditions.