Milk producers from the Central Bosnia Canton (CBC) have entered the new year with a request to increase the purchase price of milk, which has not changed for more than two decades. The daily increase in the price of fodder, artificial fertilizers and fuel made production even more difficult. It is tragic that they say that a liter of water is more expensive than a liter of milk with a premium paid by the state, which is why many, after the abolition of fattening cattle, could shut down farms with dairy cattle.
“A lot of people have left the production of fattening cattle, they have switched to milk because it is easier for them to work than to have to pray,” told Amir Bulut, president of the CBCAssociation of Milk and Meat Producers.
Thus, farmers from CBC – after failing to cope with import lobbies that led to the situation where it is obviously more profitable to import meat from European commodity reserves than to buy cattle from domestic breeding – reorganized production.
Unfortunately, the past two pandemic years, in which raw materials and production costs have risen significantly and the purchase price of milk has remained the same, have called into question their survival. This is confirmed by Sejfudin Mekicfrom Gluha Bukovica in the municipality of Travnik, whose farm with 19 cows, 14 of which are dairy, could soon be closed. And not just his.
Their situation is further aggravated by the fact that this is one of the few cantons in the Federation where there are no incentives for milk production. True, the canton set aside 50 BAM per head for owners of five or more cows, which last year amounted to close to two hundred thousand BAM.
Farmers see the solution in increasing the price, and if that doesn’t happen, we will empty European reserves, just like with meat. And the land will remain neglected and sold to foreigners for nothing.
E.Dz.
Source: Federalna
