Mill Industry Association Zitounija: Decision on Ban on Export of Flour Harmful, We Demand It Be Revoked Immediately

The decision on the ban on the export of flour from Serbia is harmful, as the surplus amounts are enormous and we don’t know what to do with them, so we demand that the ban be revoked immediately, said the president of the Association of the Mill Industry “Zitounija”, Zdravko Sajatovic.

He told Beta that the ban on the export of flour was unnecessary, as the balances do not point to it, and that both the millers and the traditional customers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Montenegro were disappointed.

– There is a huge surplus of flour, we don’t know what to do with it, and the prices have never been better, and this is an opportunity for millers to earn. We therefore demand that the decision on the ban be revoked immediately – Sajatovic said.

He added that Montenegro and BiH did not even have goods reserves of flour and that there was a possibility of Serbia losing its traditional customers, because certain embassies, ready to help secure the flour, have already reacted in those countries.

Yesterday, the Government of Serbia adopted the decision, effective immediately, to ban the export of flour, wheat, corn and edible oil.

Sajatovic said that, once lost, customers’ trust was difficult to regain, and that even if it were, the damage would still have been done.

He pointed out that, when such a decision had been made around two years before, due to the coronavirus, it had been revoked immediately and that the surpluses had been sold out at that time, because the export of flour had been twice as big as before the ban.

Sajatovic said that the purchasers of flour had heard about the ban around ten days before and that they had agreed the purchase and paid in advance and added that there was “chaos” at mills at the moment due to this, because the trucks have come to pick up the goods.

The purchasers, he said, due to the signed international agreements, have the right to seek international arbitration in seven days and they are likely to win the dispute, and the mills will have to pay the penalties.

– A new harvest is due in three to four months and I’m not sure who will buy the wheat if the mills don’t have enough money to buy it – Sajatovic said.

He added that Serbia had huge capacities in the mill industry, meant for the former Yugoslavia, and that they couldn’t be used at the moment, because there’s no one to sell the flour to.

Poslovno udruženje Žitounija

Žitounija

Zdravko Šajatović

flour

ban on export

flour surplus

mill

millers

goods reserves

mill industry