prijava
MOSTAR, August 28 (FENA) - BiH Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Minister Staša Košarac visited the Hepok Winery in Mostar today, where he met with a group of wine producers within the BiH Foreign Trade Chamber and said he was ready to propose to the Council of Ministers a 90-day ban on grape imports.
Namely, winemakers are demanding that the import of grapes be stopped because they have a very difficult situation that has hit them due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Hepok Director Nedim Marić said that they are having a problem with the import of grapes from the neighboring countries and that they want to control that quantity together with Minister Košarac in order to protect and improve the production of grapes and wine in BiH.
“In the next 20 days, the amount of grapes on our market will increase sharply, and the quantities of wine that are currently surplus in all wineries in Herzegovina in the future will not be sold, therefore grapes and wine from neighboring countries will flood our markets. Given that wine is consumed through tourism and catering, we are witnesses that these two branches do not work so we are affected. In the whole world, wine consumption is below 50 percent compared to previous years,” said Marić.
In a statement to the media, Minister Košarac said that estimates show that there are over 20 million liters of wine in BiH today and that BiH will have significant production surpluses due to the fact that producers expect a very productive year on the one hand and due to lower domestic consumption and foreign trade, these stocks will grow naturally on the other hand.
He pointed out that domestic production should be protected in the first place.
Minister Košarac added that he is ready to propose a ban on the import of wine for 90 days and in that context to protect domestic production.
“I know that some of the international circles will deny such a right, but our obligation is to protect 81 companies engaged in wine production in BiH. We will not ban the import of finished wine products, but we need to limit the import of grapes for wine production and thus enable our winemakers to store those quantities and their surpluses in an adequate way,” said Košarac.
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