Famous Fruit And Veg Market Empty As Traders Continue Strike

Farmers markets were empty on Wednesday morning all over Croatia for the third day in a row as thousands of traders continued to strike over new fiscalisation laws introduced in the country on 1 July.

Croatia’s Minister of Finance Slavko Linic refused to meet with traders who had showed up in protest outside his office on Tuesday to discuss problems around the new law which means fresh fish, vegetable and fruit traders on Croatia’s famous markets must install computerised cash registers, which are synced to the nation’s tax office, and start issuing receipts.

“We proposed to Linic to find a more appropriate way of taxation due to the specific nature of our work, because none of us avoid paying taxes, but Linic rejected us and asked the market owners to fulfill the technical requirements and the necessary infrastructure for the introduction of fiscal cash registers”, said one of the traders in front of Linic’s office on Tuesday.

“We are one of the few countries in Europe with an open farmer’s market tradition, and we need to leave it in its natural state and let it be something that will be special and which our country will be identified for in Europe. There would not be one group of tourists who when visiting Zagreb do not visit the Dolac markets, that is something we need to keep and protect,” said the Farmer’s Market Association. Traders say that the strike will continue until negotiations start.