Entering Croatia through distributors: local dealers, tenders on EOJN RH, Croatian bids and e-invoices

Croatia suits a manufacturer that wants a euro market with one national procurement platform, public demand concentrated in hospital supplies, and a first contact that may lawfully be an e-mail to a company, provided it is honest about who is writing and lets the recipient say no.

Putting it simply: Croatian hospitals, ministries, counties, cities and public companies buy almost entirely from Croatian distributors and dealers that bid in Croatian, invoice locally and service what they deliver. Every procedure, from the procurement plan to the register of contracts, runs on EOJN RH, the national electronic procurement gazette, and larger awards also appear on TED, so the companies that already sell your category can be found by name. Buyers expect a bid in Croatian, a company record that can be checked by OIB, and structured e-invoices. Direct-marketing e-mail to a legal person needs no prior consent, but every message must identify the sender and give a working address for opting out.

How the market buys

Local distributors win almost everything

In technical and professional categories the usual route is a Croatian distributor that holds stock, delivers to the coast, the islands and the interior, services the equipment and prepares the bids. In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (November 2026), 99.5% of the 101,478 awards in the 8,574 notices from buyers in Croatia since the start of 2024 went to companies registered in the country, and 89.8% of the 1,669 winning companies were Croatian. Over the twelve months from November 2025 to early November 2026, 99.6% of the 57,710 awards in 4,523 notices went to Croatian companies. Those local winners include distributors and dealers as well as manufacturers' own Croatian subsidiaries (see our methodology). A foreign manufacturer enters by being listed with them.

Demand visible on TED is growing: 1,594 supply award notices in 2024 (our coverage of Croatian award notices on TED starts on 31 January 2024), 2,974 in 2025 and 4,006 in 2026 up to early November.

Hospitals dominate the evidence

Medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (CPV division 33) account for 2,697 of the notices and 79,435 of the awards, because hospital tenders are split into many lots. Next come fuel and energy (division 09, 1,259 notices), transport equipment (34, 869), office and computing equipment (30, 693), furniture and cleaning products (39, 392) and food (15, 392). Award notices in this division are published on TED for Croatian buyers nearly every week, so if you make hospital consumables or devices, there is a steady stream of evidence on who wins.

The foreign winners are neighbours

The few awards that go abroad mostly go next door. Slovenian companies are the largest group of foreign winners, with 218 awards won by 42 companies, ahead of Hungary (43 awards), Italy (30), Germany (29), Austria (17) and Czechia (13). Some distributors cover Croatia together with Slovenia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, so when you discuss territory with a partner in the region, ask which countries it already serves.

Where the industry meets

The Zagreb Fair (Zagrebački velesajam) runs CroAGRO, the international fair of agriculture and agricultural machinery, together with the Food and Healthy Living Fairs from 3 to 6 December 2026. Medical congresses are another meeting point: CardioMET 2027, announced on the website of the Croatian Cardiac Society, takes place in Opatija from 28 to 30 January 2027. More events by industry are listed at cresques.com/events.

The proof Croatian buyers expect

Bids and documents in Croatian

Under the Public Procurement Act (Zakon o javnoj nabavi, NN 120/16 with amendments), the procurement documents must be drawn up in Croatian and Latin script, and that language version is the only authentic text; the buyer may add a version in another official EU language (Art. 200(3) and (4)). A bid is drawn up in Croatian and Latin script unless the procurement documents say otherwise (Art. 280(2)), and the price is stated in euros unless the documents allow another currency (Art. 280(3), as amended by NN 114/22). Notices sent to the Official Journal of the EU are published in full in Croatian (Art. 245(2)). Expect a distributor to ask for technical sheets, instructions for use, declarations and price lists in Croatian, ready to attach to a bid.

Conformity evidence

CE marking under the EU legislation for your product is the baseline; expect to be asked for the declaration of conformity and the test reports behind it, and check whether your product also needs a national registration before it can be sold in Croatia.

A company record that can be checked

Croatian buyers and distributors check counterparties in the court register (Sudski registar), kept by the commercial courts and searchable online by company name, by MBS (the register number) or by OIB, the personal identification number every Croatian company and person holds. The register shows legal form, status and any bankruptcy, liquidation or pre-insolvency proceedings. Have your own register extract and VAT number ready, because the distributor will check you too. A sole trader (obrt) is not a company in this register; the distinction also matters for e-mail, as explained below.

Invoicing

Croatia has used the euro since 1 January 2023 (Council Decision (EU) 2022/1211), so prices, bids and invoices are in euros.

Invoices to public buyers have had to be electronic for years. The Act on Electronic Invoicing in Public Procurement (Zakon o elektroničkom izdavanju računa u javnoj nabavi, NN 94/18) applies to invoices issued under public contracts and framework agreements and to smaller purchases (Art. 1), requires issuers to send e-invoices that follow the European standard EN 16931 from 1 July 2019 (Art. 4, Art. 7 and the final provision), and obliges public buyers to receive and pay them, with FINA as the central exchange platform for state buyers (Art. 3 and 6).

Since 1 January 2026 the same logic reaches business-to-business sales. Under the Fiscalisation Act (Zakon o fiskalizaciji, NN 89/2025), a taxpayer seated or resident in Croatia and registered for VAT must issue an eRačun, a structured electronic invoice exchanged through access points and reported to the Tax Administration, for its domestic transactions with other Croatian taxpayers (Art. 38(1) point 1 and (2), in force from 1 January 2026). A domestic transaction is one where both issuer and recipient are taxpayers seated in Croatia (Art. 3, point 34), and every line must carry the six-digit KPD product classification code (Art. 42(2)). The rules for taxpayers outside the VAT register follow from 1 January 2027. Your Croatian distributor is fully inside this system; a foreign manufacturer that sells to it from abroad is not seated in Croatia and so falls outside the definition of a domestic transaction, but implementing rules are still being issued, so check your own position and any Croatian VAT registration with your tax adviser.

Payment terms

The Act on Financial Operations and Pre-Bankruptcy Settlement (Zakon o financijskom poslovanju i predstečajnoj nagodbi, Articles 11 and 12 as amended by NN 81/13) sets the limits. Between businesses, a payment term of up to 60 days may be agreed; without an agreed term the debtor pays within 30 days, and the term runs from receipt of the invoice (Art. 11(1), (3) and (4)). Longer terms are possible only in writing for a commercial credit and never beyond 360 days (Art. 11(2) and 14(3)). Where a public-law body is the debtor, the term is up to 30 days, or up to 60 days in writing where the nature of the contract objectively justifies it (Art. 12(1) and (2)); a clause above 60 days is void (Art. 14(3)). For a distributor serving hospitals this means public money arrives within 30 to 60 days, and the terms it can offer you depend on that. The law has been amended since; check contract terms with your adviser.

Where public demand is visible

Croatian procurement is published in layers, set by the estimated value of the contract excluding VAT (Public Procurement Act, as amended by NN 48/2026 with effect from 1 September 2026).

• Simple procurement (jednostavna nabava): below €50,000 for goods and services and €100,000 for works for public contracting authorities (€140,000 and €700,000 for sectoral buyers in utilities), the Act's procedures do not apply and each buyer sets its own rules in a published internal act (Art. 12(1) and 15(1) to (4)). Above €15,000 the buyer must run the purchase through the simple-procurement module of EOJN RH, and above €25,000 for goods and services it must publish a public call in that module, with narrow exceptions such as a failed earlier procedure or a sole supplier (Art. 15(5) to (8)).
• Low-value procurement (nabava male vrijednosti): from those amounts up to the EU threshold (Art. 14), run under the Act and published in EOJN RH.
• High-value procurement (nabava velike vrijednosti): from the EU thresholds (Art. 13). From 1 January 2026 these are €140,000 for supplies and services bought by central government authorities and €216,000 for other contracting authorities (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152). These notices go to the Official Journal of the EU and appear on TED.

EOJN RH and the register of contracts

EOJN RH, the Elektronički oglasnik javne nabave Republike Hrvatske, carries the whole cycle: procurement plans, market research and consultations, procedures, notices, decisions, appeals and the register of contracts (Registar ugovora). Since the 2026 amendments, buyers must enter their procurement plan and register of contracts and framework agreements in EOJN RH, listing every purchase of €5,000 or more excluding VAT (Art. 28, as amended by NN 48/2026). The register shows which companies hold contracts below the EU thresholds that never reach TED, and the plans show what buyers intend to buy next year.

Central purchasing

The Central State Office for Central Public Procurement (Središnji državni ured za središnju javnu nabavu) concludes framework agreements for the bodies that use it; those signed in September 2026 cover computers and computer equipment, toners and inks, and fuel and electricity, and the office publishes its plan of procedures for 2026. If your category is bought centrally, the framework holders are the distributors to approach.

Lawful first contact

Croatia is one of the countries where a first e-mail to a company is lawful. Article 50(1) of the Electronic Communications Act (Zakon o elektroničkim komunikacijama, NN 76/22) allows e-mail for direct marketing and sales only with the end user's prior consent, but Article 50(4) provides that paragraphs 1 and 2 do not apply to such communication with legal persons. A direct-marketing e-mail to a Croatian distribution company therefore needs no prior consent.

Article 50(3) applies to every message. It prohibits direct-marketing e-mail that misrepresents or conceals the identity of the sender, that has no valid address to which the recipient can send a free request to stop further communication, or that encourages recipients to visit websites contrary to e-commerce rules. Under Article 51(1), HAKOM, the regulator for network industries, or the data protection authority can order a sender to stop breaching these rules.

Two limits matter. The exception covers legal persons only: a sole trader (obrt) is a natural person and needs prior consent. And if you write to a named employee, data protection law applies to that personal data in addition to Article 50. The safer route is the generic address a company publishes on its website, such as info@ or prodaja@. Identify your company fully with registered name, address and VAT number, keep the message short and specific, include a working opt-out address and honour any objection at once. Opening in Croatian, with an English version below, helps the message get read. This is a summary, not legal advice; check your outreach plan with your adviser. The Croatia market page sets out the rule and the steps, and our guide to the five rules of B2B outreach law in the EU explains how the countries differ.

What this means for a manufacturer

• Find the distributors through TED award notices and the register of contracts on EOJN RH; check whether your category is under a central framework agreement.
• Check each candidate in the court register by OIB, confirm it is a company and not an obrt, and have your own register extract ready.
• Prepare Croatian documents first: technical sheets, instructions, declarations and price lists, ready for a bid priced in euros.
• Expect your distributor to issue and receive eRačun invoices and to plan around public payment terms of 30 to 60 days.
• Write the first e-mail to the company's published generic address, with your full identity and an opt-out, or meet distributors at a fair or congress.
• If you already sell in Slovenia, Hungary or Austria, ask your partners there whether they cover Croatia, because neighbouring companies are the main foreign winners.

Where Cresques fits

Create a market for Croatia, choose your CPV categories (or let the materials reader suggest them from a brochure or website), and Cresques shows the companies named in TED award notices for those categories since the start of 2024, with personal details removed, along with the trade fairs and congresses where your industry meets. A company profile shows every award with value and buyer and an AI-researched role, distinguishing an independent distributor from a manufacturer's own subsidiary. The first message is drafted in Croatian, with an English version, for e-mail to the company with an opt-out; you send it yourself from your own mailbox. Below the EU thresholds, Cresques does not yet show Croatian awards; search the register of contracts on EOJN RH yourself.