In just seven months, Bosnia and Herzegovina imported almost 210 million marks worth of fresh, chilled and frozen meat, according to data from the Indirect Taxation Authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time, domestic livestock farmers say they are struggling to survive, with little room to increase either meat or milk production.
Farmers in Doboj Jug say falling purchase prices, rising production costs, imports and increasingly difficult weather conditions are putting additional pressure on their businesses.
Eniz Skula from Doboj Jug has been fattening bulls for two decades. He is the largest meat producer in the municipality, currently keeping around 24 head of cattle per year.
Although consumers are paying higher prices for meat, Skula says farmers are not benefiting from the increase.
“The price in the butchers is good, but not good for us. The purchase price of bulls has fallen. Bulls were eight and a half marks two months ago, now they have fallen below seven marks. It is not in our favor, but what are we going to do. Imported meat must have come here, that’s why it brought down the price of live cattle.”
The situation is similar among milk producers. There are increasingly fewer dairy farms in Doboj Jug, while the purchase price of milk has fallen from around 90 to 75 pfennigs over the past year and a half.
Semir Šečić, who runs the largest dairy farm in the municipality, has around 30 head of cattle and produces approximately 300 liters of milk a day.
“People have closed the farms. There are still a few of us left who are working on it, because we have no other way out. If we had another way out, we would also be doing something else. We will be closed more and more. And we, as soon as we get our children to school, we will also want to close the farm, because we won’t be able to fit in all this.”
Farmers stress that the responsibility does not lie with cattle breeders, who say they are increasingly struggling with market conditions and production costs.
They also warn that milk and meat production are closely connected and that the decline of dairy farms makes it harder to secure calves for fattening.
“Our politicians should ask themselves why this is so. Why are we brought to the brink of existence, that they lower the price of milk, that they condition us how much milk we will export and how we will market it,” Šečić said.
Skula says the decline in the number of dairy farms is also affecting cattle fattening.
“It’s very difficult to get a calf, since we don’t have milk cows, the farms have gone out of business, so it’s very difficult to get that fattening material. The youth don’t believe in it anymore, we older people still hold on to it and that’s how we feed it.”
Climate change is creating another challenge. Farmers say droughts are making it increasingly difficult to secure sufficient quantities of feed for livestock.
Both Šečić and Skula cultivate tens of dunums of land to produce feed for their animals.
“It will be difficult, very difficult to feed all the livestock this year, the livestock fund will not be increased much, we will have to try to keep what we have now, and that’s even if we succeed,” Šečić said.
Skula says drought has already significantly reduced yields.
“There was a drought and 40 percent failed, certainly hay, corn, and barley also failed…”
The farmers say they will not give up easily. They have survived difficult seasons before, but they question how many producers will remain in livestock farming if current trends continue.
While imports continue to account for a significant portion of the meat market in Bosnia and Herzegovina, domestic producers warn that without better conditions for production, the number of farms – and the country’s domestic livestock fund – could continue to decline.
