Member of the Presidency of BiH Milorad Dodik said that they were looking for a model so that the price of bread would not go high, to stabilize by a certain level by the end of the year and try to maintain the supply of the market until the new harvest.
“We are looking for a model that could show some effect. Republika Srpska has more than four thousand tons of wheat and we intend to use some modality to influence that at least those who are most burdened be provided, and that we provide everyone with a certain quality and weight of bread,” Dodik said at a press conference after the meeting of the ruling coalition in Banja Luka.
If there are no climatic problems, droughts, Dodik says it can be said that Republika Srpska has enough food to feed the population.
When the Russian army launched its attack against Ukraine on 24 February, food prices worldwide were already at record highs. The war is likely to push them even higher, Euronews writes.
Global food prices hit a record high in February, climbing 24% higher than where they were at the same period a year previous, following a 4% month-on-month rise.
The European Central Bank has already updated its inflation forecast for the year, now expecting inflation for 2022 to reach 5.1%. It flagged that energy prices are expected to remain high and that other commodities including food and metals “might also be severely affected by the conflict given the role of Russia and Ukraine in global supplies of these commodities.
It warned that food inflation will “remain high throughout 2022, owing to high commodity prices and extraordinary increases in gas and electricity prices, which account for around 90% of the total energy costs of the processed food industry and are an important factor for the production of fertilisers.”