Same Price for Purchased Milk Agreed, Premium Remains at RSD 15

The purchase price of milk will be the same for all producers, the milk premium will remain RSD 15 per liter and the levy on yellow cheeses will be increased to over RSD 30 per kilogram, said the cow farm owner Vukasin Bacina.

After the meeting which included representatives of milk producers, store chains, dairies and the state, he said for the Beta news agency that it had been agreed for dairies to pay the same price for milk to all producers, instead of having mediators buy it out at a lower price and then charging a higher price to dairies.

– Smaller purchasers, mediators, even paid RSD 38 per liter of bought out milk, and now it will be controlled and the price will be the same for all producers. It has been agreed for the levy on the import of yellow cheeses to increase, but that will be determined subsequently – Bacina said.

Milk producers earlier requested for the state to set the minimum purchase price of milk and proposed RSD 75 to 80 per liter, for protective fees on the import of milk and all products to be implemented and for the milk premium to be raised from 10 to 20 diners per liter.

Associations proposed various amounts of levies on imported yellow cheeses, from RSD 150 to 350 per kilogram, and several days ago, the state set it at RSD 30 per kilogram. Among the requests was to have the subsidy per head of livestock raised from RSD 25,000 to RSD 40,000 to 50,000.

Bacina said that the request made by milk producers for the state to set the minimum price had not been accepted “because the state cannot set prices for private companies.”

He added that it had been agreed for the subsidy per head of livestock to be RSD 30,000 and for support of RSD 25,000 to be paid for four months to producers for each heifer for breeding, RSD 100,000 in total, which is how much the owners of pregnant heifers would be paid as well.

He said that the representatives of store chains had claimed that their margin was 2.5%, which, according to him, “is ridiculous”.

The meeting was also attended by Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, the ministers of trade and agriculture, Tomislav Momirovic and Jelena Tanaskovic, and representatives of several dairies and store chains.

Vlada Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo unutrašnje i spoljne trgovine Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede Republike Srbije

Somboled d.o.o. Sombor

Government of Serbia

Ministry of Domestic and Foreign Trade

Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Water Management

Ana Brnabić

Tomislav Momirović

Jelena Tanasković

Vukašin Baćina

purchase price of milk

increase of import levies on yellow cheeses

minimum purchase price of milk

protective fees on the import of milk

subsidies for livestock farmers