The agricultural and food sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina recorded a foreign trade deficit of around 4 billion BAM last year, and of the two million hectares of arable land in BiH, only 20 percent is utilized, said Slaviša Ćeranić, Director of the Macroeconomic System Sector of the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH.
Ćeranić said that this branch is one of the most important in BiH, apart from the metal and wood sectors, from which agriculture differs in that it has been recording a huge foreign trade deficit for many years.
“Last year, the total volume of trade amounted to around 6.3 billion BAM, of which around 1.2 billion BAM was for exports, and around 5.1 billion BAM for imports. If we compare this with the previous year, this is an increase of around 10 percent in the total volume and an increase in exports of around 8.5 percent, and imports of around 10 percent,” Ćeranić said.
According to him, the agricultural sector is characterized by the lowest coverage of imports by exports, which amounted to 23 percent last year, and if we look at the total foreign trade deficit, this sector alone accounts for a third of the foreign trade deficit of BiH.
“When it comes to markets, we have inversely proportional movements of export and import markets, unlike other sectors,” emphasized the Director of the Macroeconomic System Sector of the Chamber.
Ćeranić said that the key export markets in the agricultural and food sector are neighboring countries – Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, while imports, except for Serbia, which is not part of the EU, are dominated by countries from the Union – Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Italy.
According to product groups, the most important are milk and dairy products, whose exports last year amounted to about 156 million BAM, followed by flour products, bakery and confectionery products worth about 153 million BAM, and edible vegetable oils worth 140 million BAM.
Regarding imported products, Ćeranić stated that last year BiH imported the most alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, worth around 601 million BAM, followed by meat and slaughter products worth 590 million BAM, and bakery and confectionery products worth 400 million BAM.
“This sector has potential, because BiH has two million hectares of arable land, and according to the data we have, only around 400,000 hectares of arable land have been used, a percentage of around 20 percent,” Ćeranić pointed out.
According to him, if this is compared to countries in the immediate vicinity, for example Serbia, the utilization of arable land there is 80 percent, and in Croatia it is even higher.
“When we talk about potential, both BiH and Serbia have a larger area of arable land per capita than EU countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands and some others, and yields are 50 to 60 times lower than in these European countries,” Ćeranić emphasized.
He stated that the problem of the agri-food sector in BiH is not from yesterday, but that it is inherited from some previous systems, and pointed out the fact that this branch of the economy also has problems due to the depopulation of rural areas.
Ćeranić stated that young people are leaving rural areas, people do not want to engage in agriculture, they would rather be in the city and work for a minimum wage, although it might be more profitable for them to engage in agriculture.
According to him, the population is aging, the production base is small, so processors are forced to import certain raw materials in order to survive.
“Technologies are at a very low level, we need to work on education, and on everything that would lead to an increase in yields, in order to somehow reduce the huge deficit in this sector,” concluded Ćeranić.
