The bread grain harvest is over, the purchase price saga is not. Dissatisfied farmers warn of losses and shutdown of production. They call on the authorities for an immediate reaction. In the meantime, we import. All kinds of goods.
The majority of farmers are dissatisfied with this year’s purchase price of bread grain, but also, as they say, with uncontrolled imports. They expect the authorities to react and block the import of wheat until all domestic crops are bought. And it’s not just about wheat, as they say. The emergence of market surpluses and the impossibility of placement is already evident.
In the production chain, one would say, there is no sector that is not at risk. Hyperproduction of seasonal goods does not find its place on the market. Although the prices, as the producers say, are trivial.
“Around 20 Fennings is a good watermelon, and there is no watermelon which is not good. And it costs us 500-600 BAM to produce this dunum,” said Aco Stojanovic.
“A 0.25–liter bottle of lemon flavor is twice as expensive as a liter of milk, so there’s no need for mathematics, there’s no need for politics,” told Milenko Nikolic.
High investments and the market is uncertain. According to the data of the Agency for Statistics, in the first six months of thisyear, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) imported slightly more than 13 billion BAM worth of goods, while it exported more than 9 billion BAM. The coverage of imports by exports amounted to 66.3 percent, while the foreign trade goods deficit amounted to 4 billion and 611 million BAM.
“There shouldn’t be uncontrolled imports. Imports buried us. These farmers in Semberija – 10.000 in 7 years – were destroyedby imports and the carelessness of institutions that should help, and they were elected for that. Let Minister Stasa Kosarac ban the import of wheat for 100 days, and he has all the mechanisms for that, the situation will be different immediately,” claims Savo Bakajlic, president of the Association of Agricultural Producers of Semberija and Majevica.
Farmers demand protection of domestic production in the form of suspension of imports. To recall, two years ago they organized protests for the same reasons, but until today the protection of domestic production has remained a dead letter. Farmers warn that production is about to collapse, there are fewer and fewer producers, and more and more arable land is overgrown with weeds.
