Agriculture is a stabilizing factor and one of the pillars of the economy, it was assessed on one panel at the Kopaonik Business Forum, whose participants pointed out that this year and next it is a turning point for primary agriculture in Serbia to begin to rise to a higher level.
Last year, when it came to agriculture, it was average, said MK Agriculture director at MK Group Strahinja Marjanovic, adding that the results achieved in 2019 were better than in previous years, but that it was far from what can be achieved.
“At this year’s Kopaonik Business Forum we heard some very optimistic rates of economic growth. Unfortunately, in agriculture, this growth is not so great, not to say that we are at some zero rate, which means that our agriculture is still stagnant”, said Marjanovic.
In the panel “Industry 4.0 and Sustainable Development of Agriculture”, he said that there is ample space to make a breakthrough in primary agricultural production and that there are many measures to that end.
He stated that 40 percent of the area on MK properties is under irrigation, which is 10 times more than the average in Serbia.
He said climate change is a growing challenge for agriculture, and that without irrigation it is not possible to maintain existing yields, let alone increase them.
“We have yields on our estates that are on pair with German, French, American, which are the best in the world. We are at that level and farmers, following our examples, can reach that level”, Marjanovic said, pointing out that agriculture is stability.
The director of distribution at Delta Agrar, Luka Popovic, said that Serbia exported over three million tonnes of corn last year, which is an absolute record.
“But we are still exporting corn, we are still exporting raw materials, we are not exporting any additional value, and we have the potential for such things”, Popovic added.
The head of the EBRD Agribusiness Team for the South-East Europe Region of London, Miljan Zdrale, said that last year, when it came to agriculture, was quite active and stressed that Serbia, after 30 years, finally has access to the Egyptian market.
He also said, however, that climate change is affecting the entire agricultural production chain.
Among other things, he mentioned, one of the challenges is African swine fever which, he added, is a serious problem.
“In Romania and Bulgaria, we currently have farms and farms that are disappearing and I think this risk will require exceptional investment and management, which can only be the biggest. I think our meat industry needs to go through a degree of consolidation and modernization because in this form it is not ready to respond to that”, Zdrale added.
The panel was also addressed by Al Dahra Serbia CEO Vojin Lazarevic, who said that agriculture is a stabilizing factor and certainly one of the pillars of the economy, RTV reports.
