BiH gets green light for export of dairy products to EU: minister

SARAJEVO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — The European Commission (EC) issued a green light on Monday to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to export milk and dairy products to the European Union (EU), BiH Trade Minister Mirko Sarovic said here Monday.
“The European Commission announced the decision today to place BiH on the A and B list of countries that are allowed to export all types of milk and dairy products to the EU, which is a great success for our dairy industry,” Sarovic said in a press statement.
BiH has until now only exported thermally processed milk that is on the C list, but from now on milk with a lower degree of pasteurization and raw milk can be exported as well.
Sarovic highlighted that BiH was one of the very few countries outside the EU that met the conditions for the export of all kinds of milk.
Since September 2016, milk produced by dairy farms in BiH entered the EU market for the first time. The country has until now exported more pasteurized milk to the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) signatory countries than it has imported, but there was still a large deficit in dairy exports, Sarovic explained.
BiH milk and dairy exports in 2017 amounted to 76 million convertible marks (44.8 million U.S. dollars), which was a 12-percent increase year-on-year, BiH Chamber of Commerce official website said. (1 U.S. dollar = 1.69 KM)