The purchase of blueberries in the Kolašin area should begin in ten days, but it is not yet known at what price.
It is certain that the harvest will be much smaller than expected, due to the unscrupulous attitude of the past years, claims Radosav Puletić-Major, owner of the company "Purchase and processing of forest fruits".
Puletić pointed out that due to the picking of green fruits with the so-called ridges, blueberries were almost eradicated in Bjelasica.
"I will repeat, as the only legal buyer in this municipality, what I appealed to last Friday - picking unripe fruits and causing fires in locations with blueberries will leave us completely without blueberries," Puletić told "Vijesti".
He explained that there are almost no blueberries left on the Ključ hill, which was known throughout the country for the huge quantities and exceptional quality of this forest fruit.
"This year, when it comes to the blueberry crop, it will be worse than last year, when there was an exceptional drought. I predict that the situation will get worse and if we don't come to our senses, we will run out of blueberries. Such a situation does not exist in other municipalities, and already in the area of Beran, Andrijevica, Rožaj, Plav... those who earn in this way harvest up to 100 kilograms a day. From the area of those municipalities, 'wild' buyers used to come to Kolašin, so I have the impression that they are much more rigorously controlled in their places, than here."
Puletić says that it is not yet known what the purchase price of blueberries will be.
Due to a bad harvest, at the end of the harvest, last year it reached a price of 2,5 euros per kilogram.
At the Kolašin market, hand-picked blueberries are twice as expensive.
Environmentalists have been warning for years about the damage caused by the use of ridges for picking blueberries. As Prof. said a few years ago. Dr. Miodrag Jovančević from the Faculty of Biotechnology in Bijelo Polje, careless picking also destroys mixed buds, which significantly reduces the next year's crop.
The NGO "Natura" has been warning about this for years. They repeatedly appealed to finally start implementing the law and to organize the control of blueberry harvesting in the Kolašin mountains.
A few years ago, the famous botanist Danijel Vincek appealed to the authorities, but also to his fellow citizens, presenting the same argument.
Puletić says that they have three refrigerators and that they freeze or dry most of the purchased forest fruits.
"In Montenegro, we do not have the capacity to process all purchased forest fruits. Everything I buy I sell outside the borders of our country. Such a situation should be changed as soon as possible, because I think that this job can be very profitable, and we can be recognized for it". Up to 100 per day for picking mushrooms
Puletić assessed that this year the situation is much better when it comes to the purchase of mushrooms.
As he says, he bought more than a ton of porcini per day, the price of which was 2,5 euros per kilogram for first class. The same amount of dried porcini mushrooms, depending on the quality, could cost up to 25 euros.
"Some fellow citizens earned from 50 to 100 euros a day by harvesting and selling porcini mushrooms, and that is certainly a big help to the household budget. Lisičarka was first bought for three, and later for one euro. The price of raw morel was 12, and for dry we paid 120 euros per kilogram. I am very satisfied with the purchase of the mushroom, now it is almost finished".
Puletić says that the daily wage could also be earned by harvesting wild strawberries, the price of which is five euros per kilogram.
He said that four years ago he bought about seven tons of that forest fruit, and this time half as much.
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