NEDIMOVIC: China can buy all the pigs Serbia can breed

The demands of China for pigs are such that Serbia can't even meet a quarter of their needs, and the penetration of the market leaves room for the price of RSD 160 per kilogram, Serbian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Branislav Nedimovic said while visiting a farm in the village of Bikovo and announced that new wheat yields would be bought out at RSD 20 per kilogram.

Sasa Sines has a family pig farm in the village of Bikovo near Subotica. He breeds around 200 sows there, including their young, that is, around 2,200 pigs the food for which is provided from approximately 160 hectares of land he got under the right of first refusal. He says that there is a lack of workforce ready to work at a farm, but that prices are the most important factor in livestock breeding.

– I believe that the price of 160 dinars per kilogram, that is, the production price plus the VAT, would be quite solid – says Sasa Sines.

Nedimovic, who visited the farm with Vuk Radojevic, the Provincial Secretary for Agriculture, and Bogdan Laban, the mayor of Subotica, says that it is very important for livestock farmers to get lend on a long-term lease and that the demands of China for pigs are such that Serbia can't meet even a quarter of those needs.

– Through the policy of market opening, we regulate the prices. The bigger the market, the bigger the opportunity to get a good price. I believe that the arrangement with China, which we will finalize over the next month, will lead to great progress in this sector – the minister said.

– In these three years, over 7.5 billion has been directly provided to our farms through subsidies. As for livestock farms, I am happy to say that over 230 million dinars has been set aside in this short period, whereby these farms have been made more efficient, profitable and competitive in the market – said Radojevic.

– As before, the priority of the City of Subotica is to help our farmers, because Subotica is an agricultural area – said Bogdan Laban.

During the visit to the farm, Nedimovic announced that, at the government's session scheduled for that week, the decision to set aside RSD 500 million for the buyout of wheat at the price of 20 dinars per kilogram would be made.