Milk Shortage in Serbia Caused by Catastrophic Position of Producers, Dairies Jeopardized Too – Beef Shortages to Happen as Well?

Those who buy milk have encountered shortages on store shelves these days, and the prices have reached RSD 180. The cited reasons are the reduced production and the increased demand for pasteurized and sterilized milk.

– The fact is that, in the summer period, animals produce less milk, because the temperatures are high, and we don’t force them to produce that much milk, as the consumption is reduced, people are on vacations. However, there are minor oscillations which are not worth mentioning. This agony would stretch out if we hadn’t had a catastrophic year of drought – the president of the Association of Cattle Farming Organizations, Sanja Bugarski, says for eKapija.

The primary producers warn that the problem has been going on for six years now, but that their cries for help fall on deaf ears.

– Who is to pay for the reviving and whether they are to pay for it, I don’t know. In 2015, raw milk cost RSD 42, and in 2021, it cost RSD 36. At the moment, if those who process milk paid RSD 72 for one liter of milk to me, I would not be able to go out of bankruptcy for the next five years, and I’m not even close to that price, not in my dreams – our interviewee says.

She adds that another reason for the shortage of milk at the moment is that “it is expensive to import powdered milk and to then dissolve it”. She also points out that milk in Serbia costs under 40 eurocents, whereas in the European Union it costs 65 eurocents.

– The processers don’t want to pay, the state won’t regulate all the relations that it should, and then there are also the unregulated relations between store chains and the processers. Those who work the least earn the most – Bugarski warns.

She points out that the processers do not meet any of the requests of the producers, that is, their “business partners”, who don’t take part in forming the price or analyzing the milk. In other words, they have no impact on the price of their product.

– For six years now, we have been explaining that the processers will not pay the price of raw milk, that the state subsidizes dairies, and not farmers, directly and indirectly. The dairy calculates that money into its basic price and they believe that taxpayers should pay the price of their product. So, when you enter a store, a product costs RSD 150, which includes the milk premium and everything else – Bugarski says.

She warns that there is no longer a difference between the “small” and “large” producers, that everyone’s going down and that the dairies will go down with them, because there will no longer be the raw ingredient.

– Among other things, the processers no longer want to pay the higher price of milk, because they claim that the packaging is more expensive, and the essence is that they don’t have to pay for the raw ingredient. A dead cow can no longer be milked, I’m sorry. What you see on the shelves now are people who have nowhere to go, who are in debt – Sanja Bugarski says.

She says for our portal that they have requested from the government to implement a minimum production price of milk, so that the processers would be prevented “from paying however much they deem fit, because that’s blackmail, and there is no possibility of choice, because everybody follows whoever is the biggest and they work in harmony”. She adds that there are also processers who use the “conquer and divide” system, offering different prices.

– We have requested a minimum production price, it is necessary and it is necessary to adjust it each month, because the prices in the market change at that pace. We had been preparing for protests before the coronavirus, and then we gave up, because it was neither the time nor place for it, and we suffered losses even then. We waited for it to pass, but the situation is not changing – Sanja Bugarski says and adds:

– The state does not want to found a national association that would gather all the farmers. Certain jurisdictions need to be transferred to the association by the ministry. It would be a different story if we had 100,000 families behind us, we would be a serious organization, which would do business for both itself and the state. That is obviously not the interest and that is a great problem.

She also warns that, without subsidized diesel fuel, they will not be able to survive, or without subsidized electricity for agricultural properties, which carry out this, as she points out, “most difficult production in all of agriculture”.

– If you’re not producing beef and veal and not farming cattle, there is no agriculture. If you destroy this production, the agriculture can’t survive. There are also low yields in vegetable, fruit and crop farming, because no one has manure, the destruction of which has been going of for decades now – Bugarski reminds.

She also says that plenty of laws on veterinarian practices, livestock farming, umbrella laws need to be amended and that the pensions for professional agriculturists need to be regulated.

– Thanks to our knowledge, we can do some things on our own, but we haven’t encountered good will – our interviewee says.

She also warns that, from January, they will have no food for animals and that the there will be no beef, except for imported one.

She claims that everyone who abandons this type of production will never return, because they don’t want to be slaves.

– We work 365 days a year and, instead of living a rich life you’ve earned through your work, you have destroyed your families, what your fathers and grandfathers left you and you don’t have enough even for the basic food, and banks treat you as natural persons and will take it all away from you – she says.

Aleksandra Kekic

Savez udruženja odgajivača goveda

Vlada Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede Republike Srbije

Sanja Bugarski

milk shortage

price of milk

purchase price of milk

production of milk

pasteurized milk

sterilized milk