Will prices rise from the ban on Serbian goods?

The decision was made on June 15th, following the arrest of three Kosovo police officers by Serb forces.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the stoppage as a safety stop, rather than an economic or commercial.

For various reasons, Kosovo, even in the past, has taken restrictive measures against Serbian products which are among the most present on the local market é, which has then resulted in price hikes.

Asked by the REL what measures it will take to prevent eventual price growth, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Enterprises says:

When there are issues or phenomena that require greater focus and commitment, the number of inspections increases, we work long hours, and we are engaged even during weekend days”.

The market's “Inspectorate will monitor the market and if any violation of legal provisions in force is found, penal measures must be taken, says the statement, without specifying any more.

On the basis of the Competition Protection Law, if some irregularities are found during monitoring, fines are brought from 1,000 to 4,000 euros.

By the Kosovo Republic's Competition Authority, as well as for REL that, after the circumstances created, “will focus on the price controls of basic products, flour, wheat, oil, sugar, milk”.

Serbia is among the countries with the largest presence of products, whether food or other, in Kosovo.

Within a day, this state exports goods to Kosovo, worth a million euros.

With prices of products and services rising, Kosovo has faced since the end of 2021, mainly due to supply disorders caused by the pandemic and the coronary. Hoov, then, has been given the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in late February 2022.

Last year, Kosovo has closed at average rate The inflation is nearly 12 percent.

The situation may change in the long term

The chairman of the Kosovo Economic House, Lulzim Rafuna, believes that in the short term, businesses will not move product prices.

“ ... well, if businesses are forced that first class, which they bought in the region, in this case in Serbia, be brought from China or any other country, this will increase the cost of raw materials and affect prices. Not by the will or will of our producers and importers, because even when they produce the final product and when they sell it on the European market, they will be more expensive”, Rafuna says.

Similarly, Arben Trsnjak, manager at the “company Leri” in Prizren, which deals with the production of various food products, says.

The price of products does not grow by just one movement. The plant "Liríri raises prices only when there are cost movements. We don't have raw materials that we get from Serbia”, he tells Radio Free Europe.

The company “Pesova” in Vushtrri handles potato processing and production. Its owner, Bedri Pesova, vows that in the event of increasing demand for his products, their prices will not change.

When at the end of 2018, the Kosovo government imposed the tax, initially 10% and then 100%, on products of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, rising prices of products on the Kosovo market began to be seen gradually.

Four months after the tax was imposed, which has remained in force for more than a year, Kosovo Statistics Agency data has shown that the inflation rate has increased in March 2019 has been 3.3 percent compared with March 2018.