Croats Bag Deals at Moscow Trade Forum

Croatian companies are hailing a number of important agreements reached at a major trade forum in Moscow.

The Croatia-Russia economic forum and investment conference organized on Tuesday gathered more than 250 Russian and 100 Croatian companies.

The Croatian delegation, led by the Economy Minister, Ivan Vrdoljak, and the former President, Stjepan Mesic, was part-organized by the Croatian chamber of economy, HGK.

In terms of the deals, the biggest Croatian manufacturer of ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, Proklima, hatched an agreement with a Russian investor, KUB Design, to construct a shopping mall in Krasnogorsk, northwest from Moscow.

Kedobet, which specializes in chemical additives, arranged a joint-venture to build a factory for additives for construction and food production, which should have an annual production worth 10 million euro.

Sardina, which produces conserved fish, reached a five-year deal to export canned fish to Russia by which the company hopes to earn 2 million euro a year.

Bakery Mlinar, with 1,700 employees and 183 shops in Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary, agreed to export baking products to Russia. The cosmetics company, Milla, also reached an new export deal for the Russian market, which should be worth some 10 million euro.

Other big and mid-level Croatian companies also reached deals to boost their presence on the Russian market, in some cases by bypassing Western sanctions on the sales of certain products.

Denis Matijevic, CEO of the fruits and vegetables company AgroFructus, said that due to the  US and EU sanctions, their goods would be exported to Russia from branch offices in non-EU member countries Macedonia and Bosnia.

"Russia is an important market with great potential....