Bread was recently included on the list of top 20 types of goods imported in BiH for the first time ever. A total of 120 million BAM worth bread, pastry and cakes were imported in our country last year.
Economic analyst Damir Miljevic explained that this can be easily explained with the entry of the trade-related section of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union (SAA) into force, with which was abolished the customs rate on imports of goods from the EU.
“We have the abolition of customs on one side, and a poor population on the other, and the only thing important to them is price. Therefore, in that context, we import even what we produce,” stated Miljevic.
Mehmed Poricanin, owner of a well-known bakery in Sarajevo and member of the Association of Bakeries of the FBiH, stated that bakeries from neighbouring Croatia and Serbia started coming to our market last year.
“When it comes to bakeries from neighbouring and European countries, it mostly refers to import of frozen bread that is baked or heated here,” explained Poricanin.
“That imported bread cannot even be compared with our homemade bread, so I feel really bad when I hear someone saying that it is good, and they do not even know that it was made somewhere else, frozen and imported to our country,” said Poricanin.
(Source: akta.ba)
