Serbia blocked wheat, consequences for Albania

Nearly 20% of our wheat cereals, especially, come from Serbia, another large, nearly 60-70% depending on the period comes from Russia, so for us this decision is catastrophic, economics expert Andrew Yzeiraj explains in an interview for Euronews Albania.

Serbia's decision, he says, puts us in trouble for all the internal production of bread that is one of the basic products, especially the areas in need that consume more bread.

According to Yzeiraj, this situation burdens the current Albanian economic situation.

“20 percent of the import may seem exceeded. But once we combine this with the cereals that we import from Russia (60-70%), it's almost 90% of our market is supplied from these two countries”, Yzeiraj says.

Economics expert says there is no simple and quick solution.

“Kriza somehow points to the long-term and structural problems of the countries' economies. Albania, as we understand, is a country that does not maintain strategic reserves that are wrong, but it is understood that at the moment you are connected to 90% size with these countries, even the reserves would not extend much”.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic announced today that Serbia from tomorrow plans to prevent flour, wheat, corn and cooking oil exports.

The Serbian president added that the government could allow exports at any time, but it is important to first provide food for the citizens of Serbia.

Vucic said that other countries' demand for first-in export materials from Serbia has increased the domestic price, for this reason the export is also being banned.

We have therefore adopted a move that prevents exports. For three days our food oil exports increased by 109 percent. All state bodies monitored the parameters to control everything. We do not have to apologize in such war conditions. We have enough of everything salt, sugar, oil, flour, wheat and corn. These are all the basic needs for a normal” life, Vucic said.

Vucic told more about his state reserves:

We have 800 tons of wheat right now, and 1.5 million tons of corn reserves. Our annual needs are 1.2 million tonnes of wheat. We'll have as many as you want to have”, secure Serbian citizens Vucic.

He said there has been demand for the export of one fourth of the total reserves.