Kosovo Customs inflows up imports from Serbia

Kosovo Customs spokesman Adriatic Stavileci has told Kosova Prees that at the time of the pandemic, import of goods from textile, vehicles and luxury products has dropped, while marking increases in food, pharmaceutical and hygienic goods.

Stavileci: There is a drop of around 30m euros

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So far, in the first four months, we have collected 311m euros, until compared to the previous year we have had 339m euros. It's about 30m euros less than last year... The main impact on revenues not only has been pandemic, but also a key factor is the decline in the price of oil in international stock exchanges. This has happened because of the smallest traffic circulation. While we haven't seen a drop in food products, they've noted increases in import, as did pharmaceutical products. But luxury products at this time have been minimized in terms of import”, Stavileci stressed.

spokesperson Stavileci has also told about imports from Serbia, when, according to him, Kosovo has imported 13m euros from this country within the last month of 13m euros of different food goods.

“We have growth from Serbia. We can say it is not in the parameters it was before the tax was imposed, but in April it has shown that from Serbia we have brought about 12-13m euros in goods, mainly food products, where they dominate flour and wheat. Bonya has also initiated import, but at a much lower rate. From Bosnia we have about 700 thousand euros import of goods up to these moments when we are speaking”, he said.

Hygienic, food and pharmaceutical products, according to Stavileci, have mostly been imported in the time of pandemic, while textile and auto goods are at least imported.

We have “in the area of halting in the textile sector. Automotive import has also declined. If we make a comparison to vehicles, there were 1600 vehicles imported in April last year, and we had only 300 in April of this year. The difference is big enough. There are some economic areas that have not worked at this time, and have failed to make sale, and as a result, have not made import”, Stavileci claims.

Even in pandemic times, imports of goods have not been missed by China and Russia, but the European Union states, especially Germany, remain the biggest importer in Kosovo, followed by Italy and France.

While, in terms of export of goods, Kosovo has also exported to Serbia, where goods worth about 7m euros have been exported so far from the start of the year, until exports in general at this time of pandemic have remained to a large extent.