Agriculture Minister: I Won’t Make Decisions under Pressure, Farmers Have an Open Invitation for Talks

Dragan Glamocic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

Agriculture Minister Dragan Glamocic on Feb. 24 said that he would not be making decisions under pressure, adding that farmers who declined to talk with him were engaged in “politics”. He also said that the situation in Serbia’s agriculture was not as poor as portrayed, noting that Serbia provided the largest dairy incentives in the world.

Speaking to reporters at the Serbian government building, Glamocic said that the protesting farmers declined to meet with him on Feb. 24 to discuss problems in agriculture, adding that they had an open invitation for talks with him.

The minister also said that an invitation to famers to apply for support measures per hectare would be published on March 2, adding that all agricultural producers in Serbia who farmed up to 100 hectares would receive RSD18,000 per hectare by end March. For this purpose, the state had allocated RSD38 billion, or more than EUR340 million, he added.

Glamocic further said that next week, his Ministry would publish a call to famers to apply for the most favorable subsidized loans in dinars. “Farmers continue to demand a total ban on imports of agricultural products, while I have explained that if we do that, we would face countermeasures and would end up having surpluses of everything. Therefore, as a Cabinet minister I will not do that now or ever,” he noted.

Commenting on farmers’ blockades, Glamocic said that the “leaders” who had taken to the streets were actually the largest milk producers. “These are good farmers, they have the highest milk production per cow and they should have it. Now, I am telling you that each of them has a net profit per cow of at least EUR4,000, and I invite them to come to do the math together and see whether they can contest this figure,” the minister said.