Serbia: 2022 was not the year of berry farming

Let’s talk about berries!

2022 was not the best year for fruit growers in Serbia due to the war in Ukraine and increased input costs, primarily transportation. Mr. Zoran Keserovic, Professor at the Agriculture Faculty in Novi Sad, said that the selling prices of raspberries were unrealistically high, regardless of the quality of the domestic product. "The price of €3.4 to €5.1 per kilogram for frozen raspberries was too high. It is difficult to predict but if raspberries remain unsold in cold storages for a long time, the price will certainly be lower than the previous season. If the production price of raspberries is around €1.20, the selling price will vary from €1.5 to €2/kg", says prof Keserovic.

The professor points out that one of the biggest problems of raspberry growers in Serbia is their relation with cold storage owners. Growers are not shareholders of the cold storages. "I have asked the processors and producers to come to an agreement, but not much success there. Few years ago, the cold storers earned large amounts of money, and now the situation is that they cannot export at the price at which they bought the fruit. A difficult situation for raspberry producers and traders", explained the professor for Biznis.rs.

At the recently held AgroBelgrade Fair, Aleksandar Jovanovic from Autentika Global spoke in detail about the reasons for the drop in raspberry exports last year. "The high prices trend was present for the last two years and that was good for producers, especially when frozen raspberries and blackberries were concerned. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Serbia’s biggest competitors have been the Poles and Ukrainians. Their average price of raspberries was €2.2 to €2.9 per kilogram, while Serbia exported at a price of over €5. Although Serbian raspberry varieties cannot be compared with Polish or Ukrainian in terms of quality, consumers in supermarkets do not pay much attention to that," explained Mr. Jovanovic.

Mr. Jovanovic also pointed out the problem with cold storages. He explained if a cold storage was packing and delivering raspberries as a retail product for some supermarket in Europe it was considered a good business. That was not the case last year. "Last year was very problematic. When a company won a tender, it has agreed on a contact price for the whole year. If they bought raspberries at higher prices than the agreed export price, they would be losing money . Regardless the fact that we have extremely good customers, from Great Britain, France, Germany, traders cannot afford €5 raspberry. It may be a sign to work more on quality promotion and market research," said Jovanovic.

According to panel participants, as well as professor Zoran Keserovic, blueberries are currently the most profitable fruit. "There are about 2,360 hectares of blueberry plantation in Serbia. Blueberry is the most profitable fruit at the moment, especially since it ripens when the blueberry season of our competitors ends. The selling price of blueberries will not go below five euros per kilogram", Keserovic believes.

The professor commented the current situation of apple producers who had a difficult year, primarily due to low export to Russia. "Export has decreased and one of the reason is that transport costs have increased drastically. Before the war in Ukraine, the cost of one truckload of apples going to Russia was up to €4 thousand, and now the price goes up to €13 thousand. Besides, 1,500 hectares of new modern apple orchards are being built on an annual basis in Russia therefore Serbian producers are already exploring other markets such as Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, Scandinavian countries, the UAE and Egypt," says Professor Keserovic. Serbian growers need to constantly work on quality improvement of the product, monitor the market and trends and plan ahead, emphasized the professor.

Serbian Government adopts Decree on incentives in agriculture           

The Serbian Government adopted a decree on the distribution of incentives in agriculture and rural development in 2023, for which funds will total at €197.6 million, announces a government press release. The announcement states that incentives are designed to support agricultural production in the best possible way in underdeveloped areas and in less favorable areas, by improving the competitiveness of agricultural farms.

These measures are the main subject of harmonization with the schemes of the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), so that the gradual transformation is carried out as part of the process of accession to the Union, the Government said.

8.9% more crops sown in Serbia compared to the previous year

In Serbia, 873,187 hectares were sown in the autumn of 2022, which, compared to the final sowing results in 2021, is an 8.9% increase, the State Statistical Office announced.

Broken down by crop types, more wheat (by 6.1%), barley (by 19.3%), oilseed rape (by 30.9%) and oats (by 17.4%) were sown, while less rye (by 3.6%). According to published data, the largest area sown is wheat, a total of 665,718 hectares. This is followed by 108,839 hectares of barley, while oats are sown on 17,027 hectares. Rye was sown on 5,379 hectares, and rapeseed on 38,018 hectares. “Compared to the ten-year average of autumn sowing (2012‒2021), the areas under wheat increased by 13.6% percent,” the Statistical Office stated.

One-third of state-owned land not rented

In Serbia, 143,488 hectares of state land remain uncultivated, which makes up 35% of the total areas that are not leased, the State Audit Institution (DRI) stated in its report on the efficiency of the use of that resource.

According to data available to the Agricultural Land Administration, the total area of state-owned agricultural land on October 31, 2021, was 805,795 hectares, of which parcels with a total area of 397,111 hectares (49%) are exempt from leasing and use. "Of the state-owned agricultural land available for lease and use, 264.929 hectares (65%) are under contracts, and the land that has not been leased and used, i.e., that has remained uncultivated, amounts to 143.488 hectares (35%)," stated DRI.

The records of state-owned agricultural land, as stated in the Report, do not fully reflect the real situation. According to the DRI, the annual programs for the protection, arrangement and use of agricultural land were not adopted in a timely manner, which led to a delay in the leasing and use of state-owned agricultural land. In the period of three agro-economic years, from November 1, 2018, to October 31, 2021, lease contracts were concluded a significant time after the beginning of the agro-economic year, most often from 61 days to 200 days after, and this makes it impossible for farmer to choose which crop to sow, state auditors point out. "The allocation of state-owned agricultural land for use without compensation is carried out without clearly prescribed criteria, on a case-by-case basis," states the DRI report.

Foreign trade exchange in agriculture in 2022

The total foreign trade exchange of Serbian agriculture industry in 2022 amounted to €7.9 billion. It is an increase of 20.1% compared to 2021. Commodities worth €4.8 billion were exported, which is an increase of 13.4% compared to the results of 2021, with a share of 17.3% in total goods exports. Goods worth €3.1 billion were imported, which is 32% more than in 2021, with a share of 8% in total goods imports.

The surplus in the foreign trade exchange of agricultural and food products for ten months of 2022 amounted to €1.6 billion, which is a decrease of 10.8% compared to 2021, states the website of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

Biomass “not used enough”

The State Audit Institution (DRI) has warned that more efficient planning of the use of renewable energy sources (RES) in Serbia would enable greater use of biomass and the more rational spending of budget funds.

After conducting an audit of the expediency of the work and functioning of the Ministry of Mining and Energy, the Provincial Secretariat for Energy, Construction and Transport, the cities of Bor and Pirot and the municipalities of Bajina Basta and Ruma, DRI stated in the report that the potential of biomass in Serbia was estimated at €3.448 million tons of oil equivalents.

That amount, as stated, accounts for 61% of the total potential of RES. “Biomass utilization planning was not efficient enough, because not all documents with defined measures and activities aimed at greater use were prepared and adopted,” the report stated. It was added that the Mining and Energy Ministry has not fully established a strategic framework for the management of biomass as a RES.

The Provincial Secretariat and Local Self-Government Units (LGUs) did not, as stated, sufficiently plan activities of using biomass as a RES. The realization of the planned activities for the replacement of fossil fuels with biomass was not, according to the report, achieved to a sufficient extent, which is why the RES potential was not used. DRI recommended the Mining and Energy Ministry to prepare an Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan for the period 2022-2030 with a projection until 2050 in cooperation with other state bodies, in order to plan activities for the use of biomass.