One of the companies that has seen great potential in exporting to the Chinese market is the Pag-based Paska Sirana, a leading manufacturer of cheeses.

"We are oriented towards export as much as possible. Our production capacities are larger than the demand on the Croatian market, where imported products are available at dumping prices. The market (here) is becoming smaller and smaller for us, and we don't want to scale down our production," Paska Sirana CEO Ante Ostaric has told Hina recently.

He notes, however, that access to the Chinese market is made difficult due to administrative barriers.

We are hopeful that market will be open to us soon, Ostaric says.

He explains that this cheese manufacturer will not strive for large-scale exports but focus on the delivery of special delicatessens to highly ranked restaurants and similar establishments, and this will be done through go-betweens with whom Paska Sirana has already made contact.

The Sardina factory in Postira on the island of Brac is exporting canned fish to China and working on obtaining a tuna export licence. Croatia has already been given approval from China for the export of fishery products and the two countries have agreed a veterinary certificate.

As a result, Sardina, which catches, processes and preserves fish, has started exporting canned sardines.

The company's sales director, Davor GabeLa, has said that two and a half years ago, they had huge problems in obtaining licences for exporting to that market.

If there were no support from our Agriculture Ministry, the Veterinary Department and Croatia's Embassy in Beijing, we would hardly get the licences, Gabela said.

To date, they have made two deliveries of canned fish via the port of Ningbo, the largest container port in China.

In early June, the port of Ningbo was the venue of a conference of the 16+1 format, which comprises China and 16 central and eastern European countries.

During that meeting, Croatia's representatives informed the Chinese side about trends as regards contagious bird and swine diseases. The Chinese representatives wanted to know whether Croatia could be given the status of a country free of influenza in birds.

Croatia's representatives underscored that poultry farming in Croatia uses methods that keep poultry safe from adverse effects.