Balance sheet of pork production and consumption in Croatia

160 ■ MESO ■ No. 1 ■ March-April ■ Vol. XVII (2015) INTRODUCTION The state of livestock production is one of the indicators of the state of agriculture, and the trends in livestock production are indicators of agricultural development. Livestock production impacts the development of a major part of crop production, especially of grain and forage crops, and livestock products such as meat and milk are the main inputs of food industry. According to FAO (2011) the world consumption of animal protein is expected to increase by about 2/3 by 2050. It will be possible to meet this future demand only by increasing productivity in livestock production. The increase of productivity will be limited by animal health and welfare, quality and food safety, and welfare of consumers. Owing to its many production characteristics, pork production has and will have even greater signicance in the population’s future diet while the overall level of the demand will be determined by population growth and an increase in their income, though to a certain limit, after which, especially due to income growth, there will be a substitution of pork consumption by other types of meat. Pig farming has a very important place in Croatian livestock production (Kralik et al., 2012). Pig production is a major consumer of agricultural crops and fodder is the most expensive input in pig production representing on average 60-70% of production costs (van Milgen et al., 2012). One of the objectives of Croatia’s agricultural policy is to achieve self-su€ciency (Grgic et al., 2011) in those products for the production of which conditions are in place in a specic area. Pork is one such product. Domestic pork production does not meet domestic consumption, which leads to a signicant import of pork (about 46% of net production and import of live animals for fattening). In Croatia two processes are simultaneously present: a relatively high demand for pork and a reduction in the number of pig produBalance sheet of pork production and consumption in Croatia