Serbia warns grain exports to Western Balkans

The announcement was made after a meeting that Serbia's Agriculture Minister Branislav Nedimovic and Albanian Agriculture Minister Frida Krifca held in Belgrade.

The media communiqué says that the countries of the initiative “Open Balkans”, as well as other neighboring countries, “can count on Serbia as a reliable partner, at the time of major challenges in the food sector”.

Representatives of Serbia, Albania and Northern Macedonia, which make up the “Open Balkans initiative”, are scheduled to hold a new meeting in mid-March but have postponed it by May, due to, as it has been said, the war in Ukraine.

A day earlier, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, said Serbia would allow the export of contracted wheat to Albania as soon as possible and added that the same will be true for every country in the region.

Serbia has enough, which means there is enough for the countries of the region”, Vuciq said.

On March 10th, Serbia has suspended exports of wheat, flour, corn and oil, due to the crisis in markets that have caused war in Ukraine.

Serbia is the main country from which Kosovo imports wheat and flour.

During the year 2021, Kosovo has imported 84 thousand tonnes of various wheat and flour from Serbia by 115 thousand tons to total from various countries, such as: Croatia, Austria, Northern Macedonia, Hungary.

Free Europe Radio has asked Kosovo Customs whether flour and wheat have entered Kosovo since the latter has placed a stop in exports on March 10th, but is still pending response.