Full liberalization of agrarian market as of 2012

Starting from 1 January 2012, import and export of primary agricultural products to the European Union and import of these products from Croatia, under the CEFTA Agreement, will be fully liberalized, Assistant Minister of Agriculture Milos Milovanovic said at a September meeting of the Slovenian Business Club.

Liberalization of the agricultural market is part of the application of the Interim Trade Agreement with the EU and the year 2012 will be the fifth out of total of six years of its application in Serbia, Milovanovic reminded and explained that it envisaged customs exemptions or abolition of such taxes on agricultural articles from the EU.

When it comes to liberalization of the CEFTA market, Milovanovic stressed that the market of Serbia would be fully liberalized for the import of goods from Croatia. The same has already been done for the goods of all other members of the CEFTA region.

Serbia's export of agricultural products to the CEFTA region accounts for 50% of the country's overall export of such products, which speaks enough about the importance of that market for our country, he said and added that the abolition of taxes on import of goods from Croatia would also lead to the elimination of all other obstacles to the import of agricultural products.

Speaking about the supply of the domestic market with primary agricultural articles, Milovanovic stated that the 2011 wheat crop amounted to 2.1 million tonnes, 15-20% more than planned, meaning that about 500,000 tonnes would be ready for export.

Remaining 1.6 million tonnes of wheat will be enough for normal supply of the domestic market and price stability, said Milovanovic.

As far as oilseed crops are concerned, he stressed that he expected the yield to be bigger than planned, which should ensure the stability of prices and supply of edible oil to the market.

Although sugar beet is grown in fewer cultivated fields than last year, there should be enough sugar to satisfy the needs of Serbia at affordable prices, Milovanovic assessed.

Poor due to ignorance

One of the speakers at the meeting of the Slovenian Business Club was Miladin Sevarlic, president of the Association of Agricultural Economists of Serbia and a professor at the Faculty of Agriculture in Belgrade, who said that one of Serbia's development chances was to model agricultural cooperatives after those in developed western countries such as France, USA, Japan, Germany, or the Netherlands.

He said that there were about billion cooperators in the world and around 100 million employees in the agricultural sector, providing half of agricultural products for people worldwide.

On the other hand, Serbia has 2,381 active cooperatives, 1,585 of which are registered as agricultural. According to professor's words, the cooperative sector is the area that was not rescued by anyone at the time of the economic crisis.

Sevarlic quoted Theodore W. Schultz, laureate of the Nobel Prize in economics, as saying upon receiving that award that "poverty is a result of the lack of awareness of the agricultural economy."