In the first half of this year, Republika Srpska, the entity in BiH, imported food and live animals in the value of approximately 193 million USD, which is by 4 % more compared to the same period last year, according to the data from the Statistical Institute of the RS. In the same period, the value of exports in that category amounted to over 82 million USD.
In the first half of this year, they imported live animal and vegetable oils and fats in the amount of 19.6 million USD, while the export value of these categories was about six times smaller.
“Another advantage for importers is that most of the imports, about 70% of the food and articles used on a daily basis, was achieved with the EU. The European path of BiH obliged it to apply different kinds of agreements with this group of countries, among which are opening up their markets and constant abolishing of customs on a large number of products,” said the economist Djurica Stojadinovic.
She also noted that with the abolition of customs, customs costs are lost when calculating the price of products that importers would offer on this market, and thus, the products flow into our market through Croatia, as through some kind of funnel. Stojadinovic said that products that are distributed from the EU to the out-of-group markets are significantly subsidized, there are increased premiums and other benefits, which will ultimately have the impact on the final sales price of the product that comes on the market of the RS.
“When we consider all of that, as well as that the production costs per product unit in the EU are considerably lower than in our country, then it is understandable that the selling price of their products is lower than the price of our domestic products,” concluded Stojadinovic.
(Source: akta.ba)
