Jelena Kalajdžić, a member of the Zajedno party, said today in the parliament that the Ministry of Agriculture is solely responsible for the poor state of agriculture and added that inflation has exceeded 100 percent for the most commonly purchased foodstuffs.
The purchase price of wheat is 20 dinars, raspberries 200 dinars, most of the cherry crop is second class, and the price is 35 dinars. Onions 150 dinars, potatoes 100 dinars, carrots 200 dinars, meat more than 1.000 dinars, said Jelena Kalajdžić.
She stated that when farmers, in debt up to their necks, block the roads out of desperation, the Ministry claims that it is not because of a bad purchase price, but because the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is falling.
Kalajdžić called for subsidies of 300 euros to be given to farmers, a good purchase price, to provide support to livestock farmers, fruit and vegetable growers.
Let us remind you that raspberry producers, dissatisfied with the low purchase price, blocked the road to Kopaonik at the entrance to Brus from the direction of Kruševac during the past weekend. Last week, they spoke with representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture in the Government, but no agreement was reached.
Read more
There is nothing to worry about
The message of the Ministry of Agriculture was today that farmers, on the other hand, have no reason to worry.
Minister Jelena Tanasković said that since the beginning of the year, the state has invested about 113 billion dinars in agriculture and stated that ways are still being found to help farmers.
Answering the question of MP Đorđe Đorđić from the United parliamentary group about the price of barley and wheat, Tanasković said that everyone in Europe has a problem because of the extremely low prices of agricultural crops coming from Ukraine.
Đorić pointed out that the price of barley last year was 36 dinars, and today it is 16, and warned that farmers cannot survive.
"Wheat is now from 19 to 21 dinars, and last year it cost 35," said Đorđić.
Tanasković stated that the Government manages the budget with a responsible policy and tries in every way to meet every producer of agricultural and food products and compensate for the disruption caused by the war in Ukraine.
According to Jelena Tanasković, Ukraine did not stop producing, but its products "did not end up in Russia, but in Europe".
"The state will come out with some kind of proposal very soon, as it has done so far. Let the farmers not worry", said Jelena Tanasković.
Tanasković also said that the state did not impose a price of 19 dinars for wheat, nor 16 dinars for barley.
ZS/FoNet
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com
