The sales of vegetables in Croatia have dropped 70 per cent in just the last two weeks since the outbreak of Escherichia coli in Germany spread panic among consumers throughout Europe.

The Association of Zagreb’s greengrocers warns that distrust has led to drastic drops in consumption, a precedent of sorts in more recent Croatian history.

"It was not like this even in the time of the bird flu. Although every buyer can go to our farms and personally attest that vegetables are homegrown and not imported, people do not believe anyone and are buying less and less," the Association says, demanding greater control over imports.

Croatian Minister of Agriculture Petar Cobankovic said recently that the deadly bacteria, which has caused 22 deaths so far, is "almost certainly" not present in Croatia. The ambiguous statement had caused another wave of panic that boomeranged in blogosphere and chat forums.

According to some officials of the Ministry of Health’s sanitary inspection, the controls of vegetables at borders and in stores have been increased, with random samples taken for lab checks.

Additional panic ensued yesterday (Tue) when it was believed that the bacteria resistant to antibiotics had arrived in Croatia’s backyard – Slovenia, daily Jutarnji List writes.