Dubrovnik caterers go to Italy for groceries: when the system doesn't exist, imports become the only option

Dubrovnik has once again become a mirror of Croatian tourism, although this time not by the number of overnight stays, but by what happens behind the scenes of every kitchen and every menu: Who in Croatia actually combines tourism and domestic production?

Because demand is huge, there are never more guests, and local agriculture never gets weaker year after year. 

Tourism, which should be a market for domestic producers, according to every economic and other logic and common sense, becomes a channel through which we strengthen other people's markets. When prices rise, the solution is not "how to include the domestic", but "how to import faster".

This is not a problem for restaurateurs, but for a system that has never built a bridge between the field and the plate.

It's about initiative of Dubrovnik caterers to try to organize part of their purchases directly from Italy, thanks to the international ferry line to Italy, transmits RTL / Net.hr.

Namely, Jadrolinija connects Croatia and Italy on the Dubrovnik - Bari route. by ferry Dalmatia - the largest ship in the Jadrolinija fleet, which allows the transport of both passengers and vehicles, and during the main season there are several weekly departures between these two cities.

All with the aim of reducing input costs and thereby, at least in theory, opening up space for lowering prices in the hospitality industry.  In this context, as reported by RTL / Net.hr, restaurateurs say that "reducing the price of products" would open up space for them to "reduce the prices of food and drinks in establishments".

"What creates the biggest problem for us is the unavailability of products in season. One month you have one thing, the next you don't, and the prices are higher than in the rest of Croatia.", said Frano Beusan, the restaurant owner.

"The action is preliminary in front of caterers, where we will see a cross-section of possibilities, a cross-section of needs, a possible delivery channel via 'Jadrolinija' because we have a direct connection Dubrovnik - Bari and something that should push our suppliers to be more competitive.", said Đani Banovac, president of the Dubrovnik Catering Guild, for RTL.

""Everyone says we're expensive, that we don't have value for money, and this is our way of managing the entire destination competitiveness. We're going to Italy and negotiating directly with the producers to see what the distribution terms are.", said Nikolina Trojić, president of the Dubrovnik County Chamber.

Their plan is to visit producers in Marche province and the product fair in Bari in March, concludes the RTL report.

How is it possible that we have such high demand and yet have to import food?

On the surface, this sounds like a rational business move: if input costs are too high, you look for a more efficient supply channel. But beneath this market logic, which is of course justified by the restaurateurs, lies a much more serious, systemic defeat of Croatian tourism.

Last year was another record year with more than 21,8 million arrivals i 110,1 million overnight stays, which compared to 2024 represents a growth of 2 percent in arrivals i 1 percent in overnight stays.

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This is the absurdity of our entire tourism. It's like Italy, the symbol of Mediterranean cuisine, importing olive oil and tomatoes to make its gastronomy, or the Netherlands, the world center of floriculture, importing tulips to decorate its own hotels.

Imports are not the problem in themselves. The problem arises when they become the base and foundation, not a supplement. While tourism demands more and more, domestic production decreases because it does not have a stable sales channel. And then, paradoxically, even more imports are justified precisely because of this. It is a vicious circle in which everyone has an argument and no one has a solution.

If we take that narrative to the end, we come to an even deeper problem that is already happening (slowly but effectively): uncontrolled apartmentization and a real estate boom that is increasingly moving from cities to rural areas.

Tourism is no longer only changing the coast, but also villages, fields and areas that were once exclusively productive. And then the absurd happens: the village, which should be the basis of local food, and therefore of tourism through short supply chains, becomes a hindrance to that very tourism. The cattle "stink", the roosters are "too noisy", agriculture becomes undesirable because it spoils the experience of the guests who came to rural peace... 

And then we wonder why there is no local food. Tourism, or more precisely, when there is no system but elements, eats away at its own foundations.

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At a time when the entire country lives off tourism, our best and globally recognized tourist destination is looking for a solution in purchasing groceries across the border. And this is not a "one-season" issue, but a symptom of a system that does not exist.

We could say that the solution is within reach: not necessarily kilometers closer than Italy in the case of Dubrovnik, but certainly closer in logic and meaning - in Slavonia, and even more so in the Dalmatian hinterland, which is a natural "partner" of every coastal destination.

But the problem is that there is no system here either. There is no organized procurement, no logistics platform, no contracted production or reliable distribution that would connect the fields of Slavonia with the kitchens of Dalmatia. And it is here that we see that the problem is not in geography, but in organization and system. 

In such conditions, tourism does what the market always does: it goes where there is a system, continuity and price. Even if that is Bari.

This is not an attack on restaurateurs. Unfortunately, this is the diagnosis of our tourism. Tourism is the largest consumer of food and beverages in the country, but in practice too often it does not do what it should: it does not become a safe channel for the placement of domestic production, but a channel through which domestic consumption fills foreign markets.

What is missing is the "middle man" who connects these two worlds. Because that is not the job of either the farmer or the restaurateur: The manufacturer needs to make the product, and the caterer needs to run the kitchen and the bar for the guests.

/ / / Without a “middle man” there is no local food in tourism: short supply chains require a system, not goodwill 

As many times before, and also in the recent article "Without 'middle mana', there is no local food in tourism", I have already precisely diagnosed why this situation keeps repeating itself: local food in tourism It is not a question of goodwill or identity., negotiable systems and business processes. 

Hotels and serious gastronomy buy security of delivery, standardization, continuity, traceability, deadlines and logistics, not "the romance of the OPG"or "domestic production". And that is why local production, no matter how high quality it is, has a hard time breaking into the HORECA system when the offer is fragmented, when there is no aggregation, when logistics are expensive or non-existent, and when there are no long-term contracts that align production with the real needs of kitchens.

So, the first question is amount - and they are big. The next step is delivery security at clearly defined time intervals, because a hotel or restaurant simply cannot afford to run out of basic supplies during the peak season. Then comes logistics and delivery, and only at the end, can we even talk about appreciate.

What is happening in Dubrovnik with the aforementioned initiative is proof of what happens when the system does not exist.

Tourism does not strengthen local production, but, in the best interest of saving its own competitiveness, becomes a driver that encourages imports and strengthens foreign markets. This is precisely the “Croatian tourism oxymoron” dilemma: Are tens of millions of overnight stays an opportunity to strengthen domestic production or a generator of imports?

This is partly the fault of the tourism system, which for years has presented tourism as a number of overnight stays, rather than as a value chain. I have written before that we should have redefined KPIs as a measure of tourism success a long time ago. 

Interesting how Tourism paradoxically works against its own sustainability. Because a destination is not competitive when it is cheaper to buy across the sea, but when it is capable of producing and organizing its own value. 

If Dubrovnik's caterers are today ready to go to Italy in an organized manner to negotiate with producers, it means that there is a critical mass of demand, there is organizational will, and there is an economic motive. 

What is clearly missing is a structure that would, on the one hand, understand the reality of OPGs (seasonality, smaller volumes, different specifications), and on the other hand, the reality of the HORECA sector (continuity, standards, invoicing, deadlines, security of delivery).

The solution is not to ban imports, but to build a system

The solution, therefore, is not to ban imports or romanticizing domestic productionImports will always exist and should exist. The problem arises when imports become the only functional system, and domestic production is left without the infrastructure that would allow it to participate in the tourism market at all.

What Croatia lacks is not another strategic document, but a system that can unify supply, standardize products, contract quantities, organize logistics, and guarantee delivery. A system that understands both agriculture and tourism, that looks through the eyes of business processes, and most importantly, deals with management. 

I know, I'm already boring myself because I keep repeating: system, system, system... but that's how it is. 

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Such a model does not have to be revolutionary, in fact, it already exists in other countries: regional hubs, clusters (ex cooperatives), public-private partnerships and/or platforms that connect producers and buyers with clear rules of the game. The only key thing is that someone takes responsibility for the organization.

Because as long as we expect the farmer to solve the logistics, standards, and continuity on his own, and the restaurateur to create the supply chain on his own, we will have the same result: import as the only safe option. 

If we want sustainable tourism, we must stop seeing agriculture as a social issue and start treating it as strategic infrastructure. Only then does local stop being a slogan and become a system. 

Cover photo: Rene Asmussen, Anna Shvets, Polina Tankilevitch / Pexels.com / Illustration: HrTurizam.hr