Branislav NedimovicSerbian Agriculture Minister Branislav Nedimovic said on Friday Serbian food exports in the first six months of this year had been up by 13.9 pct relative to 2020, which was a record year.
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That gives us additional confidence that we have markets to which we can export all our surplus agricultural products, but the government also faces the challenge of maintaining those exports, Nedimovic said at the opening of dialogue on food industry systems.
“When we look at the structure of that surplus, we also have reason for apprehension,” he said, noting that the situation was good for the time being due to record-high prices of field crops such as wheat and maize.
“The challenges are big because we must maintain the exports and increase them constantly, but we can easily boost the value of food exports to 6 bln dollars perhaps as early as next year,” he said.
For that reason, it is important to export not only primary agricultural products, but also intermediate or finished products of the food industry, he said.
Contrary to general expectations at the time, large retail chains that have come to Serbia did not stifle the national agriculture industry in the first few years of their operation, he said.
The expectations have changed in the past year and a half, with more and more farmers inquiring about doing business with retail chains and working to meet their standards, he said.
Serbian farmers see that as a chance to sell their products at fixed prices as well as to market them abroad, since retail chains are, in fact, multinational companies, Nedimovic said.
It is an opportunity for the entire Serbian economy, and it is important to invest in dairies, fruit and vegetable packaging and fruit selection, he said. “With such investments, we can export food worth not six, but up to ten billion dollars a year,” he said. ■
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