African swine fever in Macva again, how does it affect animal husbandry?

From export champion to deficit 

Serbia used to be a net exporter of meat, it exported more than wheat, sugar, oil, and today meat is in first place as an import item.

In order to save money, today Serbs are heading to Croatian Ilok, they cross the border to save money on meat and fuel.

In the last 12 years, Serbia has gone from being the largest exporter to having a deficit and imports.

Almost 20 percent fewer pigs were recorded last year, compared to the previous year. There are about 9 percent of cattle, about 4 percent of poultry and 0,2 percent less sheep, according to the data Republic Institute for Statistics.

Agroeconomist Milan Prostran previously told "Vreme" that the most pronounced decline was the number of cattle and pigs.

"We are talking about the last 11 years. In the 1.600.000s, we had almost 4,5 cattle and over XNUMX million pigs," says Prostran.

Compared to the ten-year average (2013-2022), there are fewer pigs by about 28 percent, and cattle by about 18 percent.

When and why did everything go downhill?

The interlocutor of "Vremen" recalled that the decline in the number of livestock of all kinds started rapidly in 1992 with the introduction of sanctions by the UN Sanctions Committee and that entire period lasted until November 21, 1996.

"It started because at that time we were forbidden to export beef meat, canned pork, which we could not realize through domestic consumption, and then it started to fall," says Prostran.

He points out that one of the most serious reasons is the privatization of agricultural companies, primarily agricultural combines that had large farms and a significant number of livestock.

And an additional reason, he says, could be that since 2001, 16 ministers of agriculture have been changed and that each one wanted to have their own original agricultural policy, which actually caused a lot of damage to the sensitive sector of agriculture, that is, livestock production.

Certain diseases that existed in the meantime also had an impact, the last one being the African swine fever.

Finally, he states that consumption per capita in Serbia has decreased from 65 kilograms of all types of meat, which was in 1990, to only around 42 kilograms today.