The greatest impact on the good results of agriculture in the crisis year has the yields of corn, raspberries, wheat and sugar beet, says Branislav Nedimovic, Minister of Agriculture.
According to the latest data, agricultural production in Serbia this year will increase by 5.3 percent compared to 2019, Branislav Nedimovic, the Minister of Agriculture, told Politika.
The good results of domestic agriculture, which withdrew overall economic growth in this crisis year, are most influenced by the yield of corn, raspberries, wheat and sugar beet, Nedimovic pointed out and confirmed that these parts of domestic production were more successful in terms of yield than was expected.
Asked whether the share of agriculture will exceed 7.5 percent of the share in the gross domestic product (GDP) this year, he said that “it is mathematics and that he expects that the share of agriculture in the total economy will be higher.”
– It is better to be smaller, because that would be an indicator that other economic branches have also grown – the Minister pointed out.
Earlier information indicated a serious growth of agriculture and that its share could reach up to 9.8 percent of the share in the total GDP of the country. The new rebalance of the budget for farmers is intended for another 12.5 million euros, which is additional money that is allocated despite the pandemic. Nedimovic says that the money will be allocated for direct payments, subsidies and rural development, that is, investments in the purchase of tractors and other mechanization.
According to one of the recent reports of the Fiscal Council, in such circumstances, Serbia is protected from a deeper fall in GDP primarily by the fact that its economy relies much more on the production of existential products (food, household chemicals) for which demand has not fallen significantly in the crisis.
The analysis states that agriculture makes up 7.5 percent of the total economy of Serbia, which is more than twice the share than in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, members of the EU, where the average share is around 3.3 percent. And even five times higher than in the developed countries of Western Europe, where the average share of agrarians in total economies is around 1.5 percent, Politika reports.
