In the future, milk producers from the Municipality of Pljevlja will receive seven cents for every liter of milk they deliver to dairies registered in Montenegro, two cents more than before.
This is foreseen in the proposal for a decision on premiums for the purchase of milk, which will be presented to the voters at the next session of the local parliament.
In this year's Budget of the Municipality of Pljevlja, EUR 150.000 is provided for subsidies for milk.
The Municipality will pay money for premiums to the giro accounts of dairies or directly to milk producers based on the monthly reports of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management on the total purchased quantities of milk in the territory of the municipality of Pljevlja, which were purchased by dairies registered in Montenegro.
From December 2021 until now, the municipality has been paying milk producers five cents per liter of delivered milk. Before that, the premium was three cents.
The Municipality says that they decided to increase the premium by two cents per liter of delivered milk due to the increase in the prices of "basic inputs in milk production".
"Given the increase in basic inputs in milk production, such as the price of feed, fuel, raw materials, etc. And in order to act as a preventive measure against the reduction of production, it was necessary to increase the previous amount of the premium on purchased milk from 0,05 euros per liter to 0,07 euros per liter of delivered milk," said the Municipality of Pljevlja.
The local administration claims that the previous practice of applying this type of support to milk producers in the area of the Municipality of Pljevlja proved to be justified because after the start of its application, "the amount of purchased milk increased significantly".
They point out that only ten percent of the total milk production in the municipality of Pljevlja is purchased by registered dairies.
"Stimulating the production and purchase of milk through the payment of premiums on the amount of milk delivered to registered doctors in Montenegro is a very significant measure to stimulate the development of the overall agricultural production, especially the development of animal husbandry and increase the competitiveness of the dairy sector", they claim in the Municipality of Pljevlja.
This year, the municipality of Pljevlja will allocate around one and a half million euros for the promotion and development of agriculture, which is almost two and a half times more than last year.
The municipality also adopted a decision, according to which five percent of the planned annual budget allocations will be allocated for the development and promotion of agriculture.
In 2023, the local government allocated 635.000 euros for the development and promotion of agriculture.
Through 23 incentive measures, support is included for the fields of animal husbandry, arable farming, fruit growing, vegetable growing, beekeeping, organic production, improving the quality of life in rural areas, as well as support for the promotion of agricultural products, visits to fairs, education of farmers, insurance of farmers and agricultural production...
The municipality of Pljevlja has about 15 percent of the total arable land in Montenegro and 21 percent of the total arable land. There are about 4.000 rural households in the rural area of the Pljevlja municipality, of which 3.000 are actively engaged in some form of agricultural production. The total area of agricultural land in the municipality of Pljevlja is 69.000 hectares, which represents a huge potential that is only partially used.
In the territory of the municipality of Pljevlja, there is over 10 percent of the total livestock of Montenegro, of which over 5.000 dairy cows and about 20.000 sheep and goats.
During the year, over 2.000 tons of cheese are produced and around 2,3 million liters of milk are purchased.
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