Milk producers: Shortage is an “overture”, dairy farming has died

Milk producers in Serbia have said that the milk shortage is an „overture“ and that it will get worse and worse because the sector has been destroyed, and drought and the freezing of the price of milk made the situation worse.

The owner of a cow farm in the village of Ljutovo near Subotica, Josip Mackovic, says that „the dairy sector is dead and talking about this problem is like remembering the deceased 15 days after the funeral“.

„Losses in dairy farming have been accumulating for years, we suggested a few years ago that two calves should be taken to the zoo so that children would know that cows were once bred in Serbia,“ Mackovic said.

He added that an unreasonable decision was made when the prices of basic foods, including milk, were limited, and that this year’s drought would have had no impact on production in livestock farming if the appropriate policy had been followed and if livestock farmers could have created supplies to bridge the huge increase in the price of food and other costs in the sector.

The producers said that the growth of costs in agricultural production were best illustrated by „the fact that a roll of rope for baling (tying) of animal feed used to cost RSD 1,200, and now it costs RSD 2,000“.

„Now that fertilizer has increased in price by 300 percent, animal feed by tens of percent, the price of basic agricultural final products is limited, and I do not know under what law they force us to work with a loss,“ Mackovic said.

Milk producers, as he pointed out, suggested to the processing industry and traders to agree on how much everyone should earn per litre of milk, if there was any profit, and to share the loss when there was no profit, but this was not implemented and the producers are the only ones to pay the price.

Izvor: Beta

Foto: Pixabay