07/2018
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34 S e r b i a Agriculture Bulletin RSD 50 million in agricultural subsidies for Mladenovac New Law on Agricultural Land to come into force Startup program to attract young people to agriculture First complex cooperative in Serbia established
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Contents State Initiatives ........................................................................................................... 2 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7)
Serbia adopts national rural development program ....................................................................... 2 RSD 50 million in agricultural subsidies for Mladenovac ................................................................ 2 Hungarian-Serbian fruit processing plant to be built ...................................................................... 2 40 farmers benefit under sustainable agriculture project .............................................................. 2 New Law on Agricultural Land to come into force .......................................................................... 3 Higher agricultural insurance subsidies announced........................................................................ 3 Subsidies available to farmers without state debts ........................................................................ 3
Foreign Aid ................................................................................................................. 3 8) 9) 10) 11)
Startup program to attract young people to agriculture ................................................................ 3 New project aims to provide rural youth with future ..................................................................... 4 First IPARD contracts given to Serbian agricultural producers ....................................................... 4 New project to help small farmers use satellite technology ........................................................... 4
Private Sector.............................................................................................................. 5 12) 13) 14) 15) 16)
First complex cooperative in Serbia established ............................................................................. 5 Wheat harvest satisfactory overall.................................................................................................. 5 The future of Serbian agriculture .................................................................................................... 5 Survey of 120,000 agricultural holdings planned ............................................................................ 5 Serbia has larger agricultural estates than developed nations ....................................................... 6
Note: The Agriculture Bulletin presents a monthly roundup of headlines and news stories related to Serbia’s agricultural sector. This bulletin is prepared by Business & Finance Consulting—a Swiss-based development finance consulting company. Currently, BFC is implementing “Development of Financial System in Rural Areas in Serbia” programme for KfW. Read more » BFC Max-Högger-Strasse 6 CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
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BFC Agriculture Bulletin
State Initiatives 1)
Serbia adopts national rural development program
July 30th, 2018, http://www.tanjug.rs/full-view_en.aspx?izb=421787
The Serbian government has adopted the 2018-2020 National Program of Rural Development, which is aimed at boosting the competitiveness of registered agricultural producers and supporting youth employment in rural areas. The adoption of the program creates legal conditions for the use of incentives in the food industry sector, market restructuring and the development and improvement of rural development and the environment.
2)
RSD 50 million in agricultural subsidies for Mladenovac
July 27th, 2018, https://www.danas.rs/ekonomija/velickovic-50-miliona-dinara-za-poljoprivredu/
Milinko Velickovic, the Economic Secretary of Mladenovac, has signed an agreement that will award 183 area farmers with RSD 50 million in subsidies for the supply of breeding heifers, goats and sheep. This year, a total of RSD 180 million has been allocated for agricultural subsidies, down from last year’s RSD 1.2 billion but up from 2016’s RSD 40 million. The municipality of Mladenovac received the highest amount of subsidies in Belgrade, followed by Lazarevac and Obrenovac. Agriculture is very important for Belgrade, which has about 33,000 registered agricultural holdings working on 230,000 hectares of agricultural land (150,000 hectares of which is arable).
3)
Hungarian-Serbian fruit processing plant to be built
July 25th, 2018, http://www.minpolj.gov.rs/uskoro-pocinje-izgradnja-srpsko-madjarske-fabrike-za-preradu-voca-u-arilju/
Agriculture Minister Branislav Nedimovic met with the Hungarian Ambassador to Serbia to discuss the construction of a fruit processing plant in Arilje. The plant is projected to have a minimum processing capacity of 4,000-5,000 tons per year, and construction is expected to begin within 60 days. A memorandum on the establishment of joint Hungarian-Serbian private fruit and vegetable processing companies was signed in February of this year in Budapest. Additionally, the Hungarian Embassy in Serbia has announced that they will now have an official dedicated to overseeing agricultural issues.
4)
40 farmers benefit under sustainable agriculture project
July 25th, 2018, https://www.ekapija.com/en/news/2200688/equipment-worth-eur
40 farmers have received EUR 2,000 in equipment as well as financial subsidies as part of the ‘Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Inclusion, Sustainable Villages’ project. The farmer beneficiaries also received trainings, attended a seminar and were required to submit business plans for their farms. The ‘Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Inclusion, Sustainable Villages’ project is being funded by the German organization GIZ and is being implemented in the Arilje, Bajina Basta, Cajetina, Lucani, Nova Varos and Pozega municipalities.
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5)
New Law on Agricultural Land to come into force
July 19th, 2018, http://www.agronews.rs/poljoprivredno-zemljiste-uskoro-na-satelitu/
The new Law on Agricultural Land, expected to come into force this autumn, will require that every plot of state-owned agricultural land be visible on satellite and be transparent in terms of what is being done on the land. This will allow state authorities to better manage the land and more easily plan production. The law also provides for stricter control regarding organic production and defines it as a priority agricultural sector for the country. Additionally, a draft Law on Organic Production is under preparation. Once enacted, the draft law envisages setting up a special system of subsidies to help producers switch from conventional production to organic production.
6)
Higher agricultural insurance subsidies announced
July 6th, 2018, http://www.agrosmart.net/vesti/nedimovic-vece-subvencije-osiguranje.html
Agriculture Minister Branislav Nedimovic has announced that the state will increase insurance subsidies from 40% to 70% in areas that have experienced a lot of weather-related damage in the past few years. The Minister hopes that the measure will both provide much-needed assistance to those affected by recent adverse weather conditions and stimulate farmers to more appropriately insure their production. The Minister also stated that the government needs to do more to educate farmers on the importance of agricultural insurance.
7)
Subsidies available to farmers without state debts
July 4th, 2018, http://www.agronews.rs/subvencije-samo-za-poljoprivrednike-bez-dugova/
The Ministry of Agriculture has announced a public call for applications regarding subsidies for the procurement of new machinery and equipment for the improvement of agricultural production. In order to qualify for the subsidies, farmers must have a registered agricultural holding and have no debts to the state. Additionally, only smaller producers are now eligible for the subsidies as Implementation of the Pre-Accession Program for Rural Development (IPARD) funds are now available for larger producers to use. Many agricultural producers are frustrated with the current subsidy system. Although grateful for state assistance, they argue that the process contains overly-complicated procedures and that the time it takes to receive the funds is too long. Additionally, they believe that restricting subsidies only to those without any debt to the state hinders development and that the state needs to find other solutions to make it easier for farmers.
Foreign Aid 8)
Startup program to attract young people to agriculture
July 18th, 2018, http://www.rtv.rs/sr_ci/ekonomija/start-ap-programi-za-mlade-poljoprivrednike_935570.html
Young farmers will have the opportunity to benefit from RSD 200 million in incentive funds designed to help in the modernization and mechanization of the agricultural sector in Serbia. The ‘Provincial Secretariat for Agriculture Startup Program’ aims to attract as many young people as possible to agricultural production and help them develop production in modern ways. The program proved successful last year, with many young farmers using available funds to purchase new machinery. Page 3
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9)
New project aims to provide rural youth with future
July 10th, 2018, http://www.psp.vojvodina.gov.rs/VestiCyr.aspx?Id=21749
Speaking at the opening of the ‘Innovation of Agriculture for Growth and Employment in the Transboundary Region’ project, Provincial Agriculture Secretary Vuk Radojevic noted the importance of the project in providing young people with the chance to make a life for themselves in the rural areas in which they grew up. The project will set up demo greenhouses with modern measuring instruments as well as secondary agricultural schools in order to motivate young agricultural producers and educate them in the use of modern production technologies and techniques. The project also seeks to create linkages with young producers in Hungary in order to facilitate exchanges of knowledge and experiences as well as to create opportunities for joint ventures. The ‘Innovation of Agriculture for Growth and Employment in the Transboundary Region’ project has a budget of over EUR 325,000 and is being co-financed by the European Union (EU). The project is expected to run through November 2019.
10) First IPARD contracts given to Serbian agricultural producers July 6th, 2018, https://www.ekapija.com/en/news/2183172/first-ipard-contracts-given-to-agriculturists-in-serbia
Agriculture Minister Branislav Nedimovic has handed out the first ten contracts to Serbian agricultural producers under the Implementation of the Pre-Accession Program for Rural Development (IPARD) development program. The contracts were given to five livestock farmers, four crop farmers and one fruit farmer. The IPARD II agreement between the European Union (EU) and Serbia provides EUR 175 million to Serbian agricultural producers for the development of the sector.
11) New project to help small farmers use satellite technology July 3rd, 2018, http://subvencije.rs/vesti/poljoprivrednici-koristite-satelitsku-tehnologiju-besplatno/
The Apollo project is intended to help small- and medium-sized farms benefit from technology that has been, until now, too expensive for them. Specifically, the project offers farmers the chance to use modern satellite technology to monitor the growth and development of plants, optimal soil moisture, yield estimates and irrigation standards. Research for the project is entering the final phase, and an application interface is now under construction. Farmers are also now being invited to participate in the project by providing feedback on the application and helping the Apollo project team correct errors. Funding for the project was provided under the ‘Horizon 2020’ research and innovation program of the European Union (EU).
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BFC Agriculture Bulletin
Private Sector 12) First complex cooperative in Serbia established July 27th, 2018, http://www.agronews.rs/osnovana-prva-slozena-zadruga-u-srbiji/
The first complex cooperative in Serbia has been established in Arilju, combining five regional cooperatives. The complex cooperative will engage in activities related to the collection, storage and processing of fruit as well as the placement of products directly on markets, with no intermediaries. The complex cooperative also has plans to further expand its processing capacity in the near future.
13) Wheat harvest satisfactory overall July 24th, 2018, http://www.politika.rs/scc/clanak/407899/Prinos-psenice-zadovoljavajuci-ocekuje-se-dobar-rod-kukuruza
This year's wheat harvest is nearly completed, with small areas of land in mountainous regions still being harvested. Overall, this year’s harvest is considered to be a satisfactory five tons per hectares, but it is also of a somewhat poor quality due to long-lasting rains and a long harvesting season (also due to rain). On the other hand, it is expected that this year’s corn, soybean and sunflower harvest will be strong. Plentiful moisture and warm temperatures could potentially even lead to a record harvest for all three spring crops.
14) The future of Serbian agriculture July 24th, 2018, http://www.agronews.rs/poljoprivreda-srbije-izmedu-supljih-prica-i-velikih-ocekivanja/
In recent years, there have been great expectations set for the future of Serbian agriculture. For example, Serbia adopted a new strategy for agriculture and rural development in 2014 that aimed to increase the share of agriculture in GDP from 10% to 15-20%. But this would require annual agricultural growth of 6.1-9.1%, a rather ambitious target given that agriculture in Serbia has only grown an average of 0.45% per year in the last 20 years. Moreover, recent struggles have called those optimistic expectations into question and made many examine what has gone wrong. The way in which the state relates to agriculture (a lack of interventions, missed strategies, unsustainably low and falling subsidies and systematically breaking down farmer relationships and bargaining power) has led to the creation of negative trends that will be difficult to change. Currently, farmers in Serbia are losing the struggle for survival in the existing system, especially the 631,000 smaller family-run farms. But there is some hope. Recent efforts (including state efforts) to establish and revitalize cooperatives present an opportunity for small producers to organize and establish control over their production. By unifying production capacities and having a common market advancement strategy, small producers can resist monopolistic forces and market fluctuations. For this to really succeed, however, the state needs to direct greater funding away from larger producers/investors and towards smaller producers.
15) Survey of 120,000 agricultural holdings planned July 17th, 2018, http://www.rtv.rs/sr_ci/ekonomija/aktuelno/od-1.-oktobra-anketa-u
The Republic Statistical Office is planning to conduct a survey of 120,000 farmers in order to determine the structure of agricultural holdings in Serbia. Surveyors will collect data between October 1, 2018 and November 30, 2018 regarding agricultural land usage, the number of cattle, mechanization, the Page 5
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agricultural labor force and production methods. The information obtained from the survey will be used by government bodies, agricultural producers, investors and international donor agencies. The survey is being funded from European Union (EU) pre-accession funds under the IPA 2016 National Program.
16) Serbia has larger agricultural estates than developed nations July 11th, 2018, https://www.danas.rs/ekonomija/stranci-medju-najvecim-vlasnicima-zemlje-u-srbiji/
Some of the largest landowners in Serbia hold a combined approximately 100,000 hectares of arable land due to agricultural land being sold cheaply in the past. Such large estates are uncommon in developed countries. In the United States for example, estates of more than 10,000 hectares are rare and are usually pasture lands, not arable lands. The problem for Serbia’s agricultural sector, however, is not the fact that there are large landowners; rather, it is that there are approximately 500,000 hectares of state-owned land that is unprocessed or not processed appropriately. A change in how state-owned agricultural land is managed would lead to a country that has more arable land available and is betterpositioned to take advantage of its agricultural potential.
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Prepared by Business & Finance Consulting (BFC) www.bfconsulting.com Articles are taken directly from local sources without any fact-checking; they are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only. Business & Finance Consulting (BFC)’s editing is limited to providing a short summary in English of the texts, highlighting the main points of the original articles. All rights reserved by the authors. BFC takes no responsibility and does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, or assume any responsibility whatsoever for the content, accuracy, and reliability, or completeness of any of the articles.