prijava
SARAJEVO, May 17 (FENA) - Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH Mirko Šarović said today at the session of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH that it is not accurate that 75 percent of its needs for agricultural and food products Bosnia and Herzegovina satisfies with imports, but it is a true that export-import ratio and trade balance when it comes to food imports, i.e. agricultural products amounts to nearly three billion KM, and the country exports only one billion KM in these types of goods.
Šarović presented the data as a response to a question posed by Mirsad Đonlagić (SBB BiH) about the accuracy of the data that he recently read in the media that BiH imports 75 percent of its food.
Minister Šarović pointed out that BiH imports twice as much agricultural products and food as it exports.
He added that almost 90 percent of domestic production is consumed within BiH and "this needs to be taken into account when we make an overall consumption balance in food and agricultural products, because almost three quarters of our small farms produce for themselves and only one small part goes to the and for production".
“BiH has opted for a liberal, free market, not a closed one. There are different paradoxes at hand, for example, we meet only 40 percent of our needs for cereals, the rest we import, but we are also export-oriented, we export over 120 thousand tons of flour and flour products, "said Šarović.
He added that perhaps the most curious example is with milk, stating that BiH produces 700 million liters of milk, approximately 50-50 ratio in both entities. Out of that, only 220 million liters are bought by dairy producers for further processing.
"Therefore, not one third is bought from our farmers, and the rest is sold or used in domestic production. BiH exports 70 million liters and imports only about 65 million. Meaning that we export more milk than we import it,” said Minister Šarović.
(FENA) S. R.
