Ministers of Serbia and Macedonia to discuss flour export issue on March 2 in Skopje

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of Serbia Rasim Ljajic stated today that a meeting would be held on Friday, March 2, in Skopje to the end of resolving the issue regarding the export of flour from Serbia to the Macedonian market.

Ljajic said that he had been informed that morning by the Macedonian minister of agriculture about the changes made to the regulations.

– We have scheduled a meeting in Skopje for this Friday and I hope that we will be able to find a solution which will primarily be in the interest of business entities from both countries, which will not jeopardize the foreign trade in either direction and which will not make us take any countermeasures – Ljajic told the press.

He added that Serbia avoided taking such measures, “because we know that they would harm primarily business entities and our total economic relations”.

This Monday, February 26, 2018, Ljajic had a phone conversation with Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Macedonia Lyupcho Nikolovski, discussing potential solutions to the problem of the impeded export of flour from Serbia to the Macedonian market.

The conversation took place after the Macedonian government changed the exporting procedures and the procedure of issuing control tags. Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev previously expressed hope that a solution to the said dispute would not take too long to be found.

According to media reports, the Serbian association Zitounija previously accused the Macedonian authorities of having made the export of flour from Serbia almost cost-prohibitive by implementing the new measures.

They also requested that Serbia implement countermeasures for the import of agricultural and food products from Macedonia.

For Serbian producers, Macedonia is the third biggest market, to which it exports 30,000 to 40,000 tons of flour a year.

Ministarstvo turizma i omladine Republike Srbije

Vlada Republike Srbije

Ministry of Trade Tourism and telecommunications of Serbia

Government of Serbia

Rasim Ljajic

Skopje

export of flour from Serbia

Ministry of Agriculture of Macedonia

Lyupcho Nikolovski

Government of Macedonia

Zoran Zaev

export of Serbian flour to Macedonia

Zitounija

export of flour to Macedonia

export of food to Macedonia

export of flour

export of food