After the corn harvest, Serbia will have a surplus of about 2.5 million tons this year, the same amount of wheat and about 100,000 tons of sunflowers, and export is now significantly hampered by logistical problems, the lack of means of transport and its costs, said today the director of the Association for the Improvement of Production and export of cereals and oilseeds “Zita Srbije” Sunčica Savović.
She said that the domestic market of agricultural products shares the fate of the regional and world market of grains and oilseeds, which is flooded with those products from Ukraine and other countries, so competition is high and prices are low.
“Since last year, large stocks of 1.2 million tons of wheat, about 350,000 tons of worst-quality corn, and about 55,000 tons of sunflowers remained in Serbia. During the last year, due to political instability and the rise in the price of corn and wheat on the domestic market, producers at one point at more than EUR 0.34 per kilogram, they expected that they would continue the same trend, so they did not rush to sell,” said Savović.
She added that from March to April last year, exports were prohibited, and after that, until the end of July, exports were hampered due to the introduced quotas, which irrevocably reduced liquidity in the grain sector of Serbia.
The consequences of that, as she said, are felt by everyone in the chain, from producers to exporters.
The best strategy, according to her, is to sell about 30 percent of wheat and other agricultural products before harvest or harvest, 30 percent during harvest, and leave a third of the crop in stock.
Savović said that the warehouses are overloaded with surplus goods and that, after the corn harvest, it will be necessary to start selling some of the cereals and oilseeds in order to relieve them.
Wheat, even when a market is found, cannot be exported, according to Savović, due to logistical obstacles, transportation and its high price, or the lack of financial means of exporters to rent 10-20 barges each to load an overseas ship for Africa or Southeast Asia.
Sign up for business updates & specials.
