Food quality as Serbia's trump card in exports

BELGRADE - The quality of food could be the key trump card for Serbia in exports because our country can hardly contest mass production, cheap products and contemporary technologies in the strong competition on the global market, Serbian Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajic said on Wednesday.

We should offer quality food, not mass-produced and cheap products, and our chance lies in organic production, Ljajic said and noted that out of around 8,000 hectares of tilled land in the country, organic production accounts for 0.15 percent.

The minister recalled that 52 products with protected designation of origin are being produced in Serbia at this moment but only three of them, including honey, Bermet wine and Leskovacki ajvar, are backed by international certificates.

This shows that much more effort needs to be invested in branding and marketing in the time to come, Ljajic told the Wednesday gathering on quality as the instrument to achieve a leading position on the market.

We need new technologies and this calls for fresh capital and foreign investments, he added.

The minister recalled that Serbia's total export in the past year added up to EUR 11.15 billion, compared to the EUR 4.3 billion worth of exports recorded at the moment when the Stabilisation and Association Agreement was signed, while last year's export figures were by 67 percent higher in 2014.

He underscored that 95 percent of local regulations on industrial products have been aligned with European standards, but the percentage drops to 60 percent when viewed according to individual sectors.

This is one of the best regulated areas in European legislature and it is certain that the entire work related to the...