Milk shortage was short-lived, Nedimovic says people were needlessly buying as many as 20 liters at a time

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Minister of Agriculture Branislav Nedimovic said that a liter of milk in Serbia cost the equivalent of one euro until a few days ago, while in the neighboring countries it was between 1.35 and 1.7 euros, and as soon as there is such a difference, the processing industry looks to sell its products for a higher price.

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"There is demand for these goods in the Serbian market, milk producers are looking for a better price for their goods, and it happens that this can create short-term shortages of milk," Nedimovic told a Serbian TV outlet.

He assessed that there has been a lot of speculation and misinformation on the market and social networks in recent days about milk, its price, and the number of dairy cattle in Serbia.

Nedimovic also pointed out to another problem, which is that Bulgaria and Romania have almost no dairy industry, North Macedonia also has no milk, and the only two countries in this region that have enough milk are Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Artificially induced shortages

"The only question is where the milk ends up. Is it on Serbian shelves, as UHT milk or in yogurt, sour milk, sour cream, of which products there is a sufficient amount," said Minister Nedimovic.

He stated that shortages of dairy products in the surrounding countries also got compensated from our market, as was the case with Austria a few months ago, and that because of all this, the Government of Serbia banned export of raw and pasteurized milk until the end of September.

Nedimovic said that shortages were sometimes caused artificially, and now it happens that people buy as many as 20 liters of milk at a time, which, he stressed, is unnecessary.

According to the minister, the new Government of Serbia will deal with measures related to livestock so that Serbia can produce enough milk in the future, but that must also be related to the dairy industry.

(Telegraf Biznis)