Serbia has increased the export of flour to the European Union, whereby two new markets have opened for the local mills.
– The new economic year began well for the mill industry, as 33,000 tons of exported flour was sold in July and August, which is 30% above the average foreign trade results in the previous years. What is even more important to say when it comes to this year’s exports is that local exporters have two new markets – Hungary and Slovenia, so it would be good for this foreign trade to continue in the next period as well – the director of Zitounija Association, Zdravko Sajatovic, said for Dnevnik.
He says that there is plenty of flour, because there is enough wheat to cover the local needs and to have enough left over to sell it to others too.
– That is why we need new consumers. Although it is unusual that Hungarians have bought flour from us – 1,176 tons, because they are big wheat producers, but, in any case, they have come to the local market and it would be ideal if they stayed and if the trading with Hungary continued in the coming period. We have sold 725 tons to Slovenians – Dnevnik’s interviewee said.
He noted that Serbia’s traditional buyers were Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia, where the country sold around 90% of the surplus wheat.
– We sell the most wheat to them because the transport costs are not expensive, because we are close to each other, but to other countries outside our neighborhood, the flour trade can be a big expenditure due to the transport. That is why it is the best for us to sell as much of this item as possible to the countries in our immediate proximity, so Hungary and Slovenia are ideal as new importers of local flour – Sajatovic pointed out.
According to him, for the local mill industry, the export of flour is not important just so that it would free itself of the market surpluses, but also because of the price of the item.
– Here, it is capped by the measures of the Government of Serbia and the very frequent buyout of flour from the Republic Goods Reserves, which buy at lower prices for the needs of the baking industry, which are big consumers. At the moment, the price of flour is falling in the foreign market and a ton costs EUR 270. In July and August, flour was more expensive, a ton cost EUR 290. In the local market, the price of flour was capped several days ago as part of the campaign “Better Price – Price for the People” by the decree of the Government of Serbia, due to the far cheaper wheat compared to last year. According to that decree, flour type 400 cannot cost more than RSD 54.99 in stores, and the manufacturing price cannot be higher than RSD 45. Flour type 500 has to cost RSD 49.99 in retail, and the maximum manufacturing price is RSD 40.90 – Sajatovic said.
Although the economic year started off well, Sajatovic says that it is too early to tell whether we will be able to reach the record exporting results from three years ago, when we sold 252,000 tons of flour in the foreign market.
– In the last economic year, we sold 140,000 tons of flour – Sajatovic said.
According to the data of the Serbian Grains Association, in this wheat harvest, we got around 3.4 million tons of grains, but of lower quality. A total of 1.2 million tons of bread grains remains unsold from the last harvest. We need around 1.6 million tons for local purposes, which means that we have around three million tons of wheat for other markets. That is why mills have to conquer new markets and sell our wheat wherever there is a demand.
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