Pannon EGTC

The “CrossMarkets” project funded under the b-solutions call, aims to help local producers in the Croatian-Hungarian border region to better access the markets of the neighbouring country. The project concluded in 2020 and it managed to identify the shortcomings and problems of the border region in this field, and to make recommendations to decision-makers in order to improve the situation.

Project justification:

Agricultural and primary producers enjoy privileges if their products (local products) are traded in the production environment, i.e. within a maximum distance of 50 km. This is in line with EU policies on EU agricultural products and short food supply chains and local food systems. However, when it comes to border regions, even if these borders are the EU’s internal borders, farmers and primary producers cannot enjoy the same privileges. In the Hungarian-Croatian border region, farmers on both sides of the border almost exclusively offer products from one side of the border.

The project aims to:

The Pannon EGTC project aimed to strengthen institutional cooperation between municipalities operating local farmers’ markets in order to jointly develop solutions to overcome the aforementioned legal and administrative obstacles that prevent agricultural and primary producers from selling their products across the border. Through this cooperation, several types of support are provided to the real stakeholders: farmers, primary producers and local distributors.

The main solution proposed was the exchange of experience and requirements between institutions. As a result, a toolkit has been jointly developed, providing all the necessary information on farmers’ market locations and specific requirements. The information guideline contains clear descriptions, visual explanations of the processes and a bilingual version of the necessary documentation.

Activities carried out in the framework of the project:

1. 1. Collection and analysis of Croatian and Hungarian farmers’ demands on the local farmers’ market in relation to cross-border marketing of products
   2. Gap analysis
   3. Developing a matrix of intervention options to overcome legal, administrative and linguistic barriers to the cross-border sale of products
   4. Development of online and offline support tools (guidance and information) for local value chain actors
   5. Development of political recommendations for local, regional and national public policy levels

For more information visit the following page: https://www.pannonegtc.eu/hu/b-solutions

The publications produced can be downloaded here:

Information guidelines selling Hungarian products in Croatian markets for local producers (HU/EN)

Information guidelines selling Croatian products in Hungarian markets for local producers (HR/EN)