Harvesting bread grain on the doorstep. The price is calculated. Every year the story is the same. Price unknown until the beginning of the harvest. Extremely bad year for production. This year’s sowing was the most expensive in history. Farmers in BiH are now asking for 0.82 BAM per kilogram. Are the millers willing to pay for it?
This year, Mika Zekic had to invest more than two and a half thousand marks for sowing only one hectare. Sowing is never more expensive, and the yield, he says, will be reduced, at least on his plot, due to bad weather conditions. The wheat harvest will begin in about 10 days. What worries him more is whether the purchase price will cover at least the costs of the investment.
We have to pay, whether we have it or not. One hectare to pay goes like this: land lease costs 200 BAM, fertilizer 650 BAM, protection against weeds and diseases about 150 BAM, seeds 250 BAM, fuel 350 BAM, threshing 250 BAM, and it will probably be more expensive, it is 2400 marks per hectare, and I did not count storage and transportation there “, explains Mika.
Due to all the price increases, farmers are asking for the purchase price of grain to be 82 pfennigs. Everything below that, they say, is unprofitable.
“In some normal conditions, it should cost 82 pfennigs per kilogram, with the lease it would be even more. This year we expect 4-5 tons of fruit, producers are satisfied and not, but raw materials are expensive,” says Savo Bakajlic, president of the Association of agricultural producers of the village of Semberija.
They are asking the authorities for an urgent reaction in the form of protection of domestic production so that all domestic wheat can be bought.
“Today, we will ask for a ban on the import of wheat for 120 days and for the EU and CEFTA countries to try to get these buyers to sit down with us and reach an agreement,” Bakajlic added.
Already on Thursday, they will present their proposals on the amount of the price, but also the eventual storage of bread grain to the millers. Whether an agreement will be reached is uncertain. Earlier, it was speculated that the millers are ready to pay 60 pfennigs per kilogram this year, or 36 euros per ton. The supply of flour in the mills is running out and the price of wheat on the stock market is constantly rising. In the coming days, it will be known whether the domestic barns will be filled with Sember or wheat from Serbia and Hungary, Federalna writes.
