Bosnia Urged to Reform to Overcome Export Curbs

Renzo Daviddi, the deputy head of EU Delegation, said Thursday that the country has to raise standards and adopt the necessary veterinary and food safety legislation to be allowed to export milk to the EU. 

Daviddi said there were a lot of technical issues to be solved by various institutions but political will was needed to make a breakthrough.

"To be honest, it is [political]. This has been an area where problems were clearly on the table for several years," he said.

"This is clearly something that needs to be addressed by politicians. The institutions have to implement this," he added.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is not able to export most of its dairy and meat products to the EU because it does not meet strict veterinary and food safety standards, but at the same time the country imports such products from Europe, which has angered domestic producers.

Bosnian milk producers in November protested at several border crossings through which milk was imported from the EU, demanding the state protect domestic production by increasing excise on imports.

According to the Foreign Trade Chamber, milk and dairy products imported to Bosnia come mainly from Germany, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary. In the first nine months of 2014, Bosnia imported milk and dairy products worth around 55 million euro.

Exports of milk from Bosnia to Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo were worth around 25 million euro.