Serbia has around 22,000 hectares of land under vineyards, which is five times less than in the second half of the 20th century. Vines are grown in three vineyard regions and slightly more than 80,000 agricultural estates are engaged in that activity. The data were published in a recently presented publication entitled the Atlas of Vineyards, which systematically describes the vineyard regions of Serbia.
According to the Atlas of Vineyards, in the regions of central Serbia, Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija, there are 22 rayons with 77 vineyard areas. Wine grapes are grown on some 17.5 thousand hectaters, which constitutes almost 76% of the total surfaces under vineyards, while on 4.5 thousand hectares the varieties of vines whose grapes are intended for consumption in fresh condition are grown.
The Atlas of Vineyards is based on the Serbian Agricultural Census, which the Republic Authority for Statistics conducted for the first time after half a century, said one of the authors, Darko Jakšić, from the Ministry of Agriculture. It is only in the southern Serbian province, Kosovo-Metohija, that the census was not carried out. The book is also based on the new division of vineyard areas of Serbia into rayons, conducted by the Ministry with a view to harmonizing the Serbian laws with EU regulations. Thereby new data on surfaces under vineyards, sorts, age of plants, potentials of some regions and all the other characteristics relevant for the future planned development of the Serbia wine industry were added, said Jakšić. He believes that the atlas will facilitate work for many interest groups, above all the Ministry of Agriculture, which is providing subsidies, then to manufacturers in the process of selecting the best lot, organizations in the process of obtaining geographic origin and oenological laboratories and other expert services. A portal with rayonization will soon be placed on the Ministry’s website and, for each vineyard lot, its characteristics for growing will be known, said Jakšić.
In the past 20 years the Serbian wine industry has been considerably devastated due to ownership transformation, i..e the privatization of big winery companies, agroeconomic analysts believe. Many companies that formed the pillar of the development of this sector have been liquidated or have gone bankrupt. It is expected that the winery companies udner restructuring, such as the „Vršački vinogradi“ company, will improve their production with the help of the new management, by expanding surfaces to be planted by vines reports Radio Srbija.
Source; Radio Serbia
