By: Nevena Šarenac
A roundtable was held in Sarajevo today on the topic “Export of Honey from BiH”. The goals were for potential exporters of honey in BiH to become familiar with the responsibilities of the relevant institutions and of the procedures and documentation that is necessary for the export of honey, and in the context of the fact that the EU at the end of March of this year officially approved the Residue Monitoring Program for honey from BiH.
The organizers of the roundtable were the BiH Foreign Trade Chamber, USAID/Sida FARMA project and the BiH Veterinary Office.
The certificates that are handed out by the BiH Veterinary Office comply with European standards, so that the export of honey from BiH to EU countries could begin immediately, but this exclusively depends on manufacturers.
The Director of USAID to BIH David Barth said that today is a celebration of the ability of the export of honey from BiH to EU countries, whose production, he said, should be a big industry in BiH.
“Honey is an important product in BIH, because it garners an annual revenue of 45 million KM. We would like to thank that BiH Veterinary Office and all institutions that participated in the Residue Monitoring Program for Honey in BiH’’, said Barth, and added that he expects the time when all agricultural products from BiH would be available on the EU market.
The Director of the BiH Veterinary Office Ljubomir Kalaba explained that it is necessary to enter the manufacture of honey into the office registry in order to be recorded as exporters after the entities approve the export.
“With the decision of the European Commission, BiH is placed on the list of countries for which the Residue Monitoring Program for honey has been approved. Meat, poultry, eggs and milk have also been approved’’, said Kaleba. He recalled that the BiH Council of Ministers approves 550.000 KM annually to the office for the Residue Monitoring Program.
According to him, the office has until now conducted the analysis mostly in surrounding laboratories, because local laboratories were not ready to perform the analysis according to accredited methods.
“This year, we have information that through various projects, many methods have been adopted and I hope that this year, with the Residue Monitoring Program, we will have more laboratories that will be nominated in the procurement plan for the Residue Monitoring Program”, added Kaleba.
He explained that the approval of the Residue Monitoring Plan was the only condition for its export, and that facilities must adopt HASAP and other regulations from the “hygiene package”, and that they have to be registered by the entity ministries.
The Director of the Economic Sector of the BIH Foreign Trade Chamber Zdravko Marinković said that BiH made significant progress in this branch of the economy, since it was given the opportunity to export honey to EU countries.
“When it comes to honey, it is not a great situation in this industry. Last year, the amount of honey that was exported from BiH was negligible, and in third countries, and its worth is around 17.000 KM, while imports amounted to around 2,3 million KM’’, said Marinković and added that most imports came from Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia.
According to him, BiH is suitable for beekeeping because it has a tradition of this type of production, and it has a relatively good climate for production. Thus, it could act in two directions-increase the production of honey and create the conditions to reduce imports, and to take advantages of the new conditions in BiH.
The Ambassador of Sweden to BiH Bosse Hedberg encouraged producers and institutions in BiH to continue to overcome the remaining obstacles, so that products from BiH of animal origin, including honey, could be exported to the EU market as soon as possible.
“This year, after five years of being in BiH, I am leaving your country and going to Iceland, where I will promote honey from BiH as the best honey in the world because they are good quality and there is excellent variety”, said Ambassador Hedberg.
The Ambassador of the Czech Republic to BiH Tomaš Sunjog said that the export of honey was an important step, but not the last one, because work has to continue so that BiH could export other products, and in first place is mean, eggs and milk.
According to him, the Czech Development Agency, which participated in the Residue Monitoring Program for honey, has invested 1,2 million KM until now, and this year is participating in a project that is focused on milk.
“In BiH there are three things that have to be worked on-to adopt all European standards, especially technical norms that are tied to the laboratory, for the structure of the laboratories in BiH to be at a European level in order to be able to issue certificates, and third, to work on the training of employees in laboratories’’, said the Czech Ambassador to BiH.
