The economies of central Serbia and Kosovo suffer less damage due to the difficult movement of passenger and freight traffic than before during the blockade of administrative crossings, because, as businessmen say, they managed and changed distributors of goods and license plates on vehicles according to the territory they pass through.
Concern “Bambi” from Pozarevac has been hiring a distributor from Kosovo for a long time, whose truck has Kosovo license plates and drives smoothly through central Serbia and enters the territory of Kosovo.
Ten days ago, the temporary institutions from Pristina banned the entry of vehicles with license plates, issued in Serbia, and there are about 9,500 such vehicles. Drivers of passenger and cargo vehicles can buy temporary license plates at the administrative crossing and replace Serbian license plates with them, after which they can enter the territory of Kosovo.
“So far, we have not had a problem with the entry of goods into Kosovo, because the distributor from Kosovo is in charge of transportation, who comes to Pozarevac to pick up the goods and takes them to Kosovo,” they said in Bambi.
The Kosovo market is important for that company, as they said, because five percent of the total goods are sold on it, and the largest part of the products is under the brand of plasma biscuits.
According to the director of sales, Denes Kemives, the company for the production of animal feed “Gebi” from Chantavir, despite the blockade at the border, continues to place goods on the Kosovo market unhindered because the carriers change the license plates as needed.
“The value of our exports to the Kosovo market is around one million euros a year, and the value of fodder, ie concentrates sold from central Serbia in Kosovo, is around 4.5 million euros,” Kemives said.
The director of the company for the production of industrial packaging “Hemotehna” from Subotica, Radovan Mijatovic, said that they delivered enough goods before the blockade and that a new delivery is not needed yet, but that they follow the situation with fear and think about how to proceed.
“We have a partner in Kosovo with whom we are cooperating, and the blockade is creating additional problems for us and we are thinking about how to continue shipping the goods if this situation continues,” Mijatovic said.
He added that an alternative road route through Macedonia is being considered in order to reach Kosovo and avoid possible risks.
He said that the bypass transport makes goods more expensive and that the consequences should not be suffered by businessmen who are not interested in politics, but only in the economy.
“Life is one story and politics is another. Our partner from Kosovo says the same. We want to work, not to deal with politics, there is no profit there,” said Mijatovic, Danas reports.
