The Minister of Agriculture of Serbia, Branislav Nedimović, stated today that organic production in Serbia will have exports of more than 40 million euros for the first time this year, which is almost nine times more than a decade ago, when exports of 4.5 million euros were realized.
“The area where organic crops are currently grown in Serbia is a total of 21,000 hectares, in 2011 organic food was grown on about 4,500 hectares, and in 2014 barely on 10,000 hectares,” said Nedimović at the awards ceremony at the NLB KomBank Organic competition.
He pointed out that organic production is one of the brightest parts of domestic agriculture, and attributed its progress in Serbia to the change in people’s awareness of the importance of such food production, but also to a richer society that has more money to buy such food.
Nedimović said that people who are engaged in organic production treat agriculture in a special way, creating high quality food, which they recognized in the region.
According to him, Republika Srpska and Albania asked for professional help in the field of organic agriculture in Serbia.
Nedimović also said that all requests for subsidies submitted by organic producers will be fulfilled, and 1.2 to 1.6 million euros will be available.
He also expressed regret that the 2019 agreement on the export of organic food from Serbia to Scandinavia was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, but he announced that it could soon become relevant again.
The Minister of Agriculture believes that the pandemic has encouraged a greater return to the countryside in Serbia, as well as more and more people who are working to integrate organic production with rural tourism, Dnevnik reports.
