Large markets for pork exports are opening to Serbia.
Most fatteners are raised in the area of Macva. Farmers from Badovinci alone deliver 200,000 fatteners a year. They could, they say, do more with cheaper fodder and a better price for meat, writes RTS.
Lazar Vracaric is one of the larger farmers in Macva and he will deliver over 6,000 fatteners to the market in a year. Although it has its own mixing plant, the components for animal feed and piglets are becoming more expensive for Lazar. It cultivates 20 hectares of land, it could and should be 10 times more. With the help of the state, he renewed agricultural machinery.
“My family has been raising pigs for 20 years. Thanks to that, we have managed to develop a modern farm. There have been both good and bad years in business. This is one of the bad ones. The price of fatteners is currently low. I think this is the current situation and I expect an increase. We have to fight and think long-term all of us who live in the countryside from livestock,” says Lazar Vracaric.
There are over 200,000 fatteners in the area of the rich municipality, and as many as 90 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture.
“What we are doing at the moment are subsidies for insemination of breeding cattle, but also co-financing of interest on loans,” points out Milan Damnjanovic, President of the Municipality of Bogatic.
Farmers who have more than 500 fatteners will be assisted in the future by a permanent selected veterinarian. The goal is for as few people as possible to have access to animals and to ensure health security.
“Our job is to take preventive measures and that is why we will take two different things. We will ban the sale of pigs and piglets in the corners, and on the other hand we will place containers here completely free of charge, in the area of Bogatic, to transport animal waste. We have serious trade agreements with both the European Union and Russia so that we can play like this and act as if we are from the 19th century,” said Branislav Nedimovic, Minister of Agriculture.
The Minister warned farmers that the African swine fever, if not eradicated, could pose a major problem for meat exports, and even jeopardize the implementation of agreements on exports to the payment goods markets of Vietnam, Indonesia and China, B92 reports.
