The three largest Montenegrin dairies together generate less revenue than a company from a neighboring country that does not deal with domestic production, but rather with the distribution of imported products. In the first three months alone, we have imported milk and dairy products worth 18 million euros, which is two million more than in the same period last year, said Mirsad Spahić from the Ministry of Agriculture, speaking on Boje jutra on TV Vijesti.
"According to Monstat data, which are now official, last year we imported around 80 million liters of milk and dairy products, which is really too much for Montenegro. When I say too much, it means that year after year we are importing more and more milk and dairy products, although of course the number of inhabitants and the number of tourists do not correspond to the data on import trends. If I take into account that we do not produce UHT milk and that we certainly have to import it, there remains a large part that is imported, and at the same time it can be produced or is being produced in Montenegro. Yogurt, cheese, these are all items worth 20 or so million euros, and on the other hand, we see that year after year our production is facing such pressure more and more difficultly, taking into account that according to the data, which are now preliminary, and will soon be final, that census year 2024 in agriculture gave approximately some data that we produce 150 million liters of milk, which is about 5% lower than the previous year. And that is a clear indicator that these imports are slowly choking ours from year to year." production. Taking into account that we also have a 5% drop in dairy cattle, and we are in this situation, the conclusion is clear. Our agricultural producers are finding it harder and harder to cope with this, but we still have a positive view of the future, which is that from year to year we have a renewal of the herd and we are increasing by perhaps 2-3 thousand heifers compared to previous years," said Spahić.
This statistic is also worrying for milk processors. Milutin Đuranović, owner of a dairy and president of the Board of the Association of Food and Agricultural Industries at the Chamber of Commerce, points out that domestic products, despite their quality, are not competitive due to their prices.
"The prices of dairy products from producers in the region are lower in Montenegro, meaning to a lesser or greater extent compared to the prices of the same products on the domestic market, which is called dumping. Dumping can range from 5% to 50% of the marginal revenue concept. You form your selling price only on the basis of variable costs. So, the structure of personal products and any products is the full cost price. It consists of fixed and variable costs. You cover fixed costs on the domestic market. Marginal or additional costs for milk are milk and packaging and it is enough to cover only variable costs with the selling price. Any selling price above variable costs is marginal profit. So those in such a situation are much larger companies than Montenegrin ones. For example, we have a producer in Serbia who buys ten times more in one day than the whole of Montenegro buys. So we are a small market. By the way, this phenomenon of dumping prices is prohibited by the regulations of the World Trade Organization, and also prohibited by our legal regulations," said Đuranović.
Although the Ministry, within the working group, considered restricting or temporarily banning imports, this will not happen because they believe that such a move would not solve the problem, said Spahić.
"The Ministry of Economic Development plans, in the very short term, perhaps in the next few days, to go public with a solution for our producers to gain greater market share, i.e. greater exposure of products on retail shelves, and in this way we will give processors, as well as agricultural producers, a chance to have more space and, in this regard, a greater opportunity to reach consumers, which is the main goal here," he said.
On the other hand, through limited prices, citizens can expect cheaper homemade yogurt on supermarket shelves.
"The limited price campaign will in a way be reformulated for domestic products and trade systems and companies are in agreement, simply that we no longer have limited prices for 2000 products and chocolate, which is a luxury product, but for basic life products and we will go with lower prices," announced Đuranović.
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