The Ministry of Agriculture will propose to the government measures for assisting farms which have been temporarily closed due to excessive levels of aflatoxins in their milk. Each farm would be given 300 kilograms of maize from commodity reserves and zeolite, and would be paid for their milk even if it tests positive for toxins, State Secretary with the Ministry Danilo Golubovic said Tuesday.
The Ministry announced Monday that 12 farms which provide raw milk have been closed down and said it would go before the government with measures aimed at improving the quality of milk.
The government’s main task is to get the system back to normal, Golubovic told reporters before the start of an agriculture forum organized at Tanjug’s press center by the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation and Business Info Group.
He said that with the proper measures, everything could be finished within four days, unless somebody has a different interest.
Golubovic noted that regional cooperation will produce effects and that Serbia and Croatia will probably sign an agreement to appoint an EU laboratory which will be the only one authorized to conduct tests for the whole region, an option Agriculture Minister Goran Knezevic will also offer to other countries in the region next week.
The whole region has a problem, the situation in Croatia is similar to the one in Serbia – “various laboratories and interest groups have started meddling in the work of competent state bodies,” said Golubovic.
Source Tanjug
