The pandemic of the corona virus has hit the hardest ones in the large system. In this case, it is the SMEs.
The economic effects of business collapse are more evident day by day. More and more employees are left without work because of companies that cannot survive in these conditions. And the state is slowly and almost indifferently announcing plans for assistance, the so-called economic packages.
And right from the start, we learn from leaders that packages are for those who are already privileged and strong. So, they can endure the burden of retaining more workers, covering losses and donating money to buy respirators. Small businesses hope for almost nothing.
Among them is Silbas, the Little Dairy, whose name says it all. There are about 3,000 residents in Silbas and the owners have been farming dairy for 28 years. Now they are preparing a padlock, and in an interview for 021 owner Samo Zjak explains that he has lost hope that he will get out of such a difficult economic situation, which has hit other smaller dairies in Vojvodina as well as in the whole of Serbia.
“We started the year steadily, but in February there were signs that business was going to go bad. We are in the chain of production and distribution. This means that we buy milk from farmers, process and make milk and trappist cheese. We then deliver them through interested distributors to interested buyers. We will soon have to stop buying milk because we have no one to sell the product. They all canceled us, they closed restaurants, fast food, everything”, says Samo, Slovak by origin.
The buyers left, but obligations to the state remained. All bills and taxes must be paid, but it will be impossible to cover all expenses. So it may soon run out of power.
“Great systems have no mercy. Try not to pay for the phone, and even in this situation, you will not come across anyone’s understanding. Those numbers you call don’t get answers from there. One, second, third warnings and exclusions arrive. Whatever package help Serbia prepare, I don’t think we will be ordinary, local businessmen. You need to be close with certain circles of people to get into that story. That’s how it has always been”, says the owner of the Silbas dairy.
Asked by 021 how many raw materials are currently in operation, he says – too much. Because of this, he will have to cancel to the farmers from whom he obtained raw milk. This, he is aware, will also endanger their survival.
“Last week, we sold a total of 300 pounds of cheese. Now zero. Today, 2,000 liters of milk came to us and it cannot stand, it must be surrendered, and in this situation we hope to sell at least the milk at full price to one of the stronger dairies. Otherwise, both of us fail. We have plenty of trappist standing, which we hope to sell at a lower price, at least. All of us small entrepreneurs were hoping for a solution, but we can’t even reach those bigger players”, Zjak says.
However, he will not fire his employees, despite this crisis. However, he has no hope that he will be “praised” by top state leaders.
Asked by 021 how he will be able to keep the workers without production, Zjak explains that there are several people, mostly his neighbors, who have already paid his March salary, and will try to cover them by selling the remaining milk. It all depends on that, he says.
“When we started operating in 1992, the conditions were a little different. Then the transition from socialist to capitalist. There was inflation, wars – I had to go to the front a few months after the dairy opened. We then expected that the worst was behind us, that we would live a beautiful life, but we went from one crisis to another. We never lived, we just survived.
Somehow the smaller ones have always been on the wrong side because, you see, not everyone in this situation is so bad. This is like a state of war, and then you had profiteers. For all our rich people, you know how rich they are”, says the owner of the little dairy.
In the end, he compares the situation to a football game.
“The rules of the game are currently changing throughout the game. You change players all the time, throwing out most of them, but keep the one that is supposedly the best. Only he remains in the field. How will he play the whole game himself? He has to pass the ball to someone”, believes Samo Zjak, 021 writes.
