Risk management on the winegrowing farms at Northwest Croatia

The main goal of this paper was to determine perceptions of risk and risk management strategies by winemakers. Primary research was based on the sample of 38 randomly selected winegrowers in the Croatian northwestern sub region of Zagorje – Međimurje. Winegrowers are relatively unwilling to take risks. In the process of making business decisions most of them rely on their own experience, advices and recommendations learned by attending winegrower association courses together with critics of their customers. Highly evaluated risk sources are health issues (human risks) and production risks (weather factors, as well as diseases and pests. As the most important risk management strategies in vineyard production, the winegrowers emphasized: ownership of land and objects, intuition and personal assessment and additionally the various methods of price risk management (marketing and sales policy). Crop insurance is perceived as a relatively important strategy. The main reasons why winegrowers use crop insurance are: regional exposure to extreme climate risks, as well as the unavailability of other management instruments for risk management. In order to improve the quality of insurance services it would be necessary to focus efforts and activities on promoting and developing a better system for agricultural insurance. That would consequently allow enrichment of insurance risk sources palette, but also could have effect on decrease of insurance premiums. Furthermore, in order to become competitive in both, domestic and EU market, there should be developed training programs in the area of risk management. That could have impact on reducing risk aversion in the business activities!