10 minutes agoProducts from Northern Macedonia replace Serbian ones
Periskopi(3 years ago)
(3 years ago)It has been more than two months since the Kosovo market has begun to decrease from Serbia's products. Oil, wheat, refreshments, and others have been replaced by products from other countries. The Kosovo government has banned almost all imports from Serbia since 15 June, when Serbian forces have arrested three [...]
It has been more than two months since the Kosovo market has begun to decrease from Serbia's products.
Oil, wheat, refreshments, and others have been replaced by products from other countries.
The Kosovo government has banned almost all imports from Serbia since 15 June, when Serb forces have arrested three Kosovo police officers.
While police have been released to defend themselves in freedom, the measure of stoppage has continued.
In Kosovo Customs, free Europe Radio confirms that the introduction of Serbian products has dropped markedly.
In June and July of this year, the value of Serbian imports has been close to 20m euros, or over 50m euros less than in the same period last year.
Customs officials clarify that continued imports include raw materials and semi-products needed for final production.
In several grocery stores that have visited Radio Free Europe this week in Pristina, small shortages or amounts of Serbian products are observed.
Traders say that the remaining ones were imported before June 15th.
Imports Increases From Other Countries
In the Kosovo Economic Oda (OEK), businesses have already replaced most of Serbia's products with products from other countries.
Some foreign companies, which have produced their products in Serbia, have reoriated our businesses to factories they have in the region, to supply”, OEK Chairman Lulzim Rafuna tells Radio Free Europe.
According to him, Northern Macedonia has become the main destination of Kosovo businesses, because territorial proximity does not increase the transport of goods, nor, therefore, their price.
“Citizens have been offered products with equal quality and there are no price hikes, even though [products] were imported from another state”, Rafuna says.
In July, the value of goods that have entered Kosovo from Northern Macedonia has exceeded 30m euros. Compared to the same period last year, it's about 8m euros more.
Import growth has been marked by other countries, such as Germany: over 53m euros last July, close to 70m euros this year's July.
The bed...
Some citizens surveyed by REL in Pristina complain that prices are high, “m or without products from Serbia”.
“Anyway food products”, says Idriz Sahiti. “There are some of Serbia's products still on the market, but there are few. It's better this way”, he says.
Looking at our living standard, prices are expensive”, says Vehbi Asllani.
In Kosovo, the average gross salary is 520 euros, while the minimum is drawn from 130 to 170 euros.
Last year the country has closed its average inflation rate of nearly 12 per cent, but, according to the Kosovo Statistics Agency, trend this year is on the decline.
In the Republic of Kosovo's Competition Authority, they say that, following the ban on Serbian goods, they have focused on monitoring prices of basic products, but do not show whether they have faced any eventual irregularities.
The Competition Authority will monitor/inspect the situation in the market of basic products flour/grour, oil, sugar, milk within legal competencies. If any irregularities are found, it will react according to official task”, a written statement by this institution, sent to Radio Free Europe.
In the case of such irregularities, the Law on Protection of Competition envisions fines ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 euros.
In some earlier statements to Radio Free Europe, representatives of several production companies in Kosovo have pledged that they would not increase prices, following the ban on imports from Serbia.
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 the first materials we get from Serbia”, the manager of this company, Arben Trsnjak, said on June 17th.
Free Europe Radio asked in the Government of Kosovo whether there are plans to lift the ban on Serbia's products, but its officials refused to comment.
In a statement given REL in August, Kosovo Minister for Communities and Return Nenad Rassic has said that the government, in the coming period, would have to annul the decision to ban import of Serbian goods, but that it expects the European Union to cancel its punitive measures against Kosovo.
Rassic has not given a precise date when those decisions will be made.
The EU, at the end of June, has taken several punitive measures against Kosovo which include cancelling several funds and high-level meetings because, as it has been said, Kosovo has not made the necessary steps to calm increased tensions in the country's Serb-run north.
Business alliances, both in Kosovo and Serbia, have warned that the unstable political situation negatively affects both countries' economies.
Until the ban, Serbia has been among the states with the greatest presence of its products in Kosovo.
From 2018 to April this year, Serbia has exported products to Kosovo, worth over 1.3 billion euros. During the same period, Kosovo products on Serbia's market have reached the value of 215m euros, Kosovo Statistics Agency data show.
On average annually, Kosovo imports goods from the world's various countries worth 5 billion euros, while exporting the value of less than 1 billion euros. / REL/
