Nikšić, December 23, 2024.
The national conference “Strengthening the role of farmers in the value chain – together to a sustainable green transition”, organized by the Network for Rural Development of Montenegro, gathered over 70 participants including farmers, representatives of institutions, the dairy industry, the non-governmental sector, traders, students and representatives of the media. On this open platform, all participants had the opportunity to participate in the conversation and exchange opinions on the challenges and opportunities of the Montenegrin farmer.
The Network for Rural Development organized five participatory and consultative workshops attended by farmers, representatives of institutions, as well as representatives of dairies and associations. The topic of these workshops was the position of farmers in the dairy sector and the challenges they face, and they were held in Danilovgrad, Tuzi, Bijelo Polje and in Nikšić, twice. The goal of these consultations was to hear the voice of small farmers, what are their needs, problems and interests, and also to give all actors the opportunity to jointly think about ways to improve the position of farmers in the value chain in the dairy sector. The results and conclusions from these workshops served as the basis for the expert Ilinka Beatović Nikić to create a National Report on the topic: Improving the position of farmers in the value chain in the dairy sector in Montenegro.
The primary goal of the Conference was to present the detailed findings of the National Report, but also to gather key stakeholders and stimulate discussion between decision makers, the public and private sectors, farmers and their associations on how the position of farmers in Montenegro could be improved.
The conference was opened by the president of the Network for rural development of Montenegro, Ratko Bataković, who welcomed all present and said that the Network for Rural Development was founded 12 years ago with the aim of being a platform that will bring together all relevant actors in order to improve agriculture and all economic activities that take place in rural areas and make everyone feel better in the countryside and create better conditions, and he also expressed satisfaction that the Network for rural development managed to gather participants from all sectors, from farmers to decision makers, representatives of dairy industry, processing and non-governmental sector.
After him, the president of the Municipal Assembly of Nikšić, Nemanja Vuković, said that he wanted to send a clear message from this Conference about the importance of agriculture, and then pointed out that the local government allocated around 370 thousand euros for subsidies to milk producers this year, while 440 thousand euros are foreseen in the budget for the next year. He then emphasized that all subsidies were paid retroactively in the past three years. Since there was no subsidy payment to dairies from 2013 to 2021, the local administration, with full respect for that work, retroactively paid subsidies in parallel with the payment of subsidies for the current years. In order to make villages more accessible and to encourage young people to return to the countryside and start agricultural production, there are large investments in road infrastructure, especially in rural areas. He said that everyone together can and must contribute to the use of agriculture, as an extremely significant potential, in order for Montenegro to raise that economic branch to an even greater level.
Director of the Directorate for Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Affairs, Vladimir Đaković expressed his satisfaction that the hall was full and that the general public recognized the importance of this topic and agriculture in general and that he would be happy to respond and participate in all similar events. He also announced that Montenegrin raw milk will be exported to the EU by 2028, that experts from the region have been hired to train our farmers so that raw milk reaches European standards.
Professor Dr. Milutin Đuranović, president of the Board of the Food and Agricultural Industry Association in the Chamber of Commerce (PKCG), said that we must be aware that agriculture is food, and we cannot live without food. “When I say food, I mean the production of healthy food.” Health enters the mouth, but so does illness, so we must have healthy food. Unfortunately, Montenegro has “climbed” to fourth place in the world on the list of cancer patients. The data is amazing. One more piece of information – this year we will have a record import of food and beverages of one billion euros. “Each day, 2.8 million euros go from Montenegro to import food and beverages,” Đuranović said. The value chain, as he said, consists of the farmer, the processor, the trader, the consumer and the state, and it is precisely the traders, consumers and the state who can improve the chain. He cited the examples of Slovenia and Croatia, which used campaigns to emphasize the importance of buying domestic products, and consumers responded adequately by buying them. “When we buy a product that is not from Montenegro, we invest in another country. When we buy a domestic product, we invest in our country. That’s why we should favor domestic products, of course assuming that there is a good price-quality ratio,” said Đuranović.
And the president of the Agricultural Cluster of Montenegro, Boško Miličić, pointed out that the Agricultural Cluster gave its contribution during consultative workshops with concrete proposals for improving the position of farmers, but he thinks that the support of the state is very important in all of this. He emphasized that the association has one key goal, which is to increase the agricultural budget by five percent, from the total state budget, because farmers are the pillars of our economy, protectors of natural resources and guardians of life in rural areas. Greater investment in agriculture means more support for domestic producers, greater food security for our citizens and the opportunity for young people to stay in the countryside and build their future here in Montenegro. This is not just a request, but a necessity for survival and progress – said Miličić.
After the opening remarks, the expert, Mrs. Ilinka Beatović Nikić, presented a detailed overview of the results of the consultation process through the National Report. Some key findings of this report are:
• Lack of communication between different actors in the value chain
• Lack of labor on farms
• Frequent changes in laws related to taxes and contributions (during the adoption of a set of laws for the implementation of the “Europe Now” program)
• Problems related to the aspect of livestock selection (import of lower quality cattle, poor genetic characteristics)
• Uncertainty regarding the availability of arable agricultural land for fodder production (possibilities and conditions of land lease)
• Emergence and poor control of infectious diseases
• High trading margins
Among other things, the report also gave answers to questions about how to overcome all these weaknesses. Strengthening cooperation between milk producers and generally strengthening cooperation between all actors in the value chain is a key recommendation. Then, we should start dealing with bad trading practices, develop market-oriented production models, and of course monitor and apply the results of research and innovation in this area.
The participants at the Conference came to the following conclusions: that the association of farmers is a necessary condition for strengthening their position in the value chain of milk production in Montenegro. Farmers are aware of how much greater association would strengthen their position and enable, which is the goal, to achieve better, higher and more stable incomes, to achieve a higher price of milk, to have constant production and to be competitive on the market. Also, they believe that the political representation of farmers in the Parliament would strongly contribute to making their voice heard better, as well as helping to solve problems related to the improvement of legal regulations, increasing the agricultural budget, and more efficient work of administrative bodies dealing with the department of agriculture. In addition, it is necessary to affirm domestic autochthonous breeds in milk production for several reasons, among other things, that rural and less accessible areas can be successfully and sustainably exploited by growing these breeds and then also because of the greater interest in organic production and autochthonous products obtained from traditional-indigenous breeds grown in their original area. And in the end, the participants agreed that the role of the media is one of the key factors that needs to be improved, where it is necessary to work on the education and specialization of journalists and to include them in all processes.
The Network for rural development of Montenegro, based on the aforementioned report and the discussion during the conference, will prepare a Policy document that, taking into account the findings so far, will contain proposals and recommendations as well as possible solutions for improving the position of farmers in the value chain. After drafting, the document will be sent to the line ministry.
