Organic food produced in Serbia: Truth or fairy tale?

According to the latest available data provided by Eurostat, Serbia is at the very back of Europe when it comes to the share of organic production in agriculture, writes Klima101.

Namely, in Serbia, the share of organic production in relation to the total agricultural use land only 0,83 percent.

In concrete figures, the last agricultural The census, which was conducted in 2023, showed that the total area of ​​used agricultural land in Serbia is slightly over 3,2 million hectares.

Of that, according to Eurostat, organic production is carried out, according to the latest available data, on only 27.550 hectares.

At the very bottom of Europe

According to the share of organic production, Serbia is at the back of Europe, together with Turkey, Malta, North Macedonia and Albania.

But in other countries, both in the region and in Europe, the share of organic production is much higher - and in countries such as Italy, it almost reaches 20 percent.

As Dr. Svetlana Vujić from the Faculty of Agriculture in Novi Sad once wrote for Klima101, organic production in Serbia has existed for more than 25 years.

"However, this system and direction is present on very small areas due to the numerous rules and legal obligations that producers have to fulfill", explained Dr. Vujić, "and it mainly refers to the production of vegetables and fruits, and it is very little present in agricultural production".

In recent years, more and more experts and farmers in Serbia are turning to the so-called regenerative agriculture, which instead of avoiding synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and additives, prioritizes practices for preserving soil quality.

But these "directions" in modern agriculture are not conflicting by nature, they just approach the problem of sustainability in different ways.

And if we want to preserve the quality and health of our soil in the long term, as well as our wider environment, we must turn to sustainable agricultural practices to a greater extent.

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