Economics, Agribusiness and Football in Croatia
The 1998 World Cup Champion, France is set to play its third FIFA Final on Sunday in Moscow after defeating Belgium in the semifinals. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Belgium will play the match for third place. Today, England and Croatia are set to face each other at the second semifinal match of the 2018 World Cup. Croatia, formerly part of Yugoslavia until 1991, is making its second appearance in a semifinal. Furthermore, if Croatia advances, its national team would play its first-ever World Cup Final.
Economics, Agribusiness and Football in Croatia
Located along the northwestern Balkans in Europe, Croatia is a small country with a total territory of 56.594 square kilometers, which is somewhat smaller than West Virginia. Spanning along the Adriatic Sea, Croatia has 5.835 kilometers of coastline and is dominated by flats plains as well as low mountains. Currently, the country has a total population of 4.3 million citizens, 57% of which live in an urban setting, notably the capital city of Zagreb with almost 700.000 inhabitants. The national annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about US$100 billion (PPP) and the country has experienced positive economic growth upwards of 2.0% in recent years. The Croat economy is divided into 4% agriculture, 27% manufacturing, and 69% services. Similarly, it is estimated that the agricultural industry employs 2% of the national labor force, while manufacturing employs 28% and services employ another 70%. Meanwhile, the agriculture industry utilizes 24% of the national territory, while another 34% is forested.
In terms of natural resources, Croatia has oil, coal, bauxite, iron ore, calcium, gypsum, asphalt, silica, mica, clays, salt, and hydropower. Within manufacturing, the national industry is focused on chemicals, plastics, machinery, metallurgy, electronics, rolled steel products, aluminum, paper, textiles, shipbuilding, and petroleum refining. Simultaneously, Croatia’s agricultural industry has as main products wheat, corn, barley, sugar beet, sunflower, rapeseed, alfalfa, clover, potatoes, cabbage, onion, tomato, pepper, apples, plum, mandarins, olives, livestock, and dairy products. During 2016, Croatia imported US$22 billion worth of goods and exported US$13.5 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of US$8.5 billion. Furthermore, that same year, the country’s main export, representing 5% or US$675 million of the country’s total, was refined petroleum. On the other hand, the country’s main import, representing 4.1% or US$880 million of all international purchases, were cars. In terms of trade, Croatia belongs to the European Union, but does not utilize the Euro as its official national currency. Meanwhile, its main trading partners are Slovenia, Germany, Italy, and Austria.
In recent years, the daily average per capita protein intake of animal origin amongst the Croatian population has been 47 grams. Simultaneously, land distribution in the country has evolved throughout the last three decades. Back in 1992, permanent pastures and meadows in Croatia covered 1.1 million hectares, while arable land covered 1.2 million hectares and permanent crops accounted for 113.000 hectares. More recently, by 2015, permanent pastures and meadows had decreased to 618.000 hectares, while arable land represented 844.000 hectares and permanent crops covered 75.500 hectares.