Germany's Tonnies again postpones arrival to Serbia by a year – State land to be leased

Germany's meat packing company Tonnies has once again postponed its arrival to Serbia by a year. This time, the reason is the swine fever. This is not the first time that the German giant has given up on the announced investment. Certain municipalities in Vojvodina have therefore leased the land meant for Tonnies to Serbian farmers this year as well.

– The commission for investments has approved the delay by a year for Tonnies. The reason is the outbreak of swine fever in Europe. This means that the large amount of pigs and pork products that would need to be transported here cannot be transported as there's a ban in effect. The land will be leased until the investment starts being implemented – the Ministry of Agriculture told Novosti.

The town administration of Zrenjanin says that it will allocate around 2,500 hectares of state-owned arable land to farmers in this Banat municipality, as Tonnies, which has the right of first refusal for a period of 30 years, has given up on the investment without an official explanation, same as last year. The town of Zrenjanin has not provided an explanation or said when the German company will start renting the land.

On the other hand, Banat farmers welcome the decision to provide the state land to local agriculturists and point out that they are the ones who know best how to work the land and that Tonnies never seriously intended to start producing in Serbia.

Serbian agri-economist Milan Prostran points out that the Tonnies investment is quite uncertain. The memorandum with this company was signed in 2015, but the company hasn't arrived since.

– Neither the details of the project nor the company's intentions are known. There have been speculations that they need 15,000 hectares and that they will be processing meat. Now, no one knows anything anymore. The Government of Serbia has had so many of these negotiations, that we cannot be sure anymore if the investment will take place at all – Prostran explains.

Land of corn

According to Prostran, Serbia is a land of corn and pork producers. It is debatable whether the country needs Tonnies, as domestic livestock farmers can handle everything themselves. Still, he believes, the market is free, as is the flow of the capital, and it can't be stopped. Prostran, however, doubts that the German investor will arrive.

Toennies Invest d.o.o. Beograd

Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede Republike Srbije

Grad Zrenjanin

Tonnies

Milan Prostran

investments of Tonnies in Serbia

swine fever

meat industry in Serbia