Serbia Has Surplus Wheat, Corn and Sunflower, Export Hampered by Logistics Problems

After the corn harvest, Serbia will have a surplus of around 2.5 million tons this year, the same amount of wheat and around 100,000 tons of sunflower, and the export is now seriously hampered by logistics problems, the lack of means of transportation and transportation costs, said the director of the “Serbian Grains” Association, Suncica Savovic.

She said for the Beta news agency that the market of agricultural products shared the fate of the regional and global markets of grains and oil plants, which was flooded with products from Ukraine and other countries, so the competition is big, and the prices are low.

– In Serbia, there is a large stock left over from last year of 1.2 million tons of wheat, around 350,000 tons of corn of the lowest quality and around 55,000 tons of sunflower. Last year, due to the political instability and the growth of the prices of corn and wheat in the local market, at one point to over 40 dinars per kilogram, the producers expected the same trend to continue, so there was no rush to sell it – Savovic said.

She added that, from March to April in 2022, exporting had been banned, after which, until the end of July, exports were hampered due to the implemented quotas, which had had an irreversible effect on the reduction of liquidity in the grain sector of Serbia.

The consequences, she said, are felt by everybody in the chain, from producers to exporters.

As she said, Serbia will have to do something at some point to improve the infrastructure so as to facilitate the transport of agricultural products on the Danube, or to secure investments for the reconstruction of the Belgrade-Bar railroad and the procurement of additional rail cars for the transport of bulk cargos, because through the Port of Bar, Serbian exports would get direct access to the sea and sea ships and, with that, to the end-buyers of Serbian grains.

Žita Srbije Beograd

Serbian Grains Association

Suncica Savovic

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corn harvest

wheat

sunflower

export of grains

ban on export of oil

price of sunflower