Golubovic: Increase export of higher processing degree items

KOPAONIK - Products of a higher degree of processing make up for as few as 20 percent of the overall agricultural export of Serbia, Serbian State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture Danilo Golubovic said on Thursday.

Export of goods of a lower degree of processing is dominant because items of primary agricultural production have accounted for around 80 percent of total exports for a number of years now, Golubovic said during a panel discussion at the 22nd Kopaonik Business Forum on problems of agriculture in Serbia.

He said that surplus in the exchange of agricultural and food products has been on an increase despite this problem and it totalled around USD 1.4 billion last year.

Last year, the value of export per unit of goods totalled EUR 0.44 per kilogramme, while the value of import per unit added up to EUR 0.95 per kilogramme, Golubovic said.

Such a trend points to the need for production and export of products of a higher degree of processing, which can be achieved only by redirecting raw materials to local processing procedures and increasing output of products of a higher degree of processing, he said.

This goal requires completion of privatisation in many companies, construction of modern storage capacities and enhancement of marketing and sale, among other things, Golubovic concluded.

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