What good are our domestic food resources if we spend billions on other people’s?

Read me this news.

It is no longer a platitude to say that Bosnia and Herzegovina is an import-oriented country, even when it comes to basic food products.

Water, fruits and vegetables, meat, cereals, potatoes – although Bosnia and Herzegovina has the ability to produce and process all of the above, the situation on the ground shows that we are absolutely based on imports, and that it seems that without it we would almost “drop out” of hunger and thirst.

Namely, according to the data of the Administration for Indirect Taxation of BiH, in 2024 we spent, believe it or not, 1,708,008,155 KM on the import of fruits, vegetables, grains, water and meat, while at the same time we earned “only” 284 million on the export of the mentioned products KM, which is six times less.

BiH spent the most money on the import of meat and live animals. We imported more than 98 million kg, for which 683,281,608 KM were paid, which is an increase compared to 2023 by 70 million KM.

As far as exports are concerned, in 2024, ten times less was exported than imported, and the earnings were 51,623,798 KM (similar figures in 2023).

This is followed by fruits and vegetables. 420,565,703 KM was spent on the import of these products last year, while at the same time BiH earned 134,900,384 KM on the export of fruits and vegetables.

BiH spent 305,241,300 KM on grain imports in 2024, and 596,864,591 kg were purchased. Export revenue was 41,365,666 KM.

Hundreds of sources of drinking and mineral water in BiH are not enough to not turn to imports in this field as well. 242,609,819 liters of purchased water entered BiH, for which almost 300 million KM was paid. On the other hand, 139,082,096 liters or 73,416,910 KM were exported.

Here we will also add data for the import and export of potatoes.

Although Glamo, Nevesin and other types of potatoes are widely known in BiH, the produced quantities, it seems, are not sufficient for domestic needs, so as of August 2024, 23,854,123 kg were imported, which is more than 22 million KM.

While citizens are offered foreign goods more than domestic ones, their pockets are getting empty, because already this year, new price increases have started, such as fuel and coffee, and an increase in the price of bakery products and meat has been announced.

When we add it all up, we can’t help but wonder if we have enough of our own food resources and, if we do, why are we spending billions buying other people’s?

“For years we have been pointing out the excessive import of almost all agricultural products. Unfortunately, Bosnia and Herzegovina has decided to be a consumer and import-oriented country,” replies Stojan Marinković, president of the Association of Agricultural Producers of the Republic of Srpska.

He points out that BiH has the potential to increase production in all sectors of agriculture, that it has technical and technological resources, and incentives for that, but the problem is that due to imports, we are not competitive even on the domestic market, which is why domestic producers give up.

“Every year we are faced with the impossibility of selling products, or even selling them at prices that are below the profitability threshold,” says Marinković.

“Measures to protect domestic production are necessary. But, unfortunately, it has become a political issue and there is no political consensus at the state level to introduce these measures in order to raise the level of our production”, adds Marinković.

Real control of domestic resources, continues Marin Bago, president of the “Futura” Mostar consumer association, is when we know how much we have in domestic warehouses and how much we need to import.

“We have no commodity reserves and the reality is that we are totally dependent on imports, and when that is the case, then you do not control your market even by chance. We don’t even know how much potatoes and flour we need, we don’t have that basic information. We know how much is imported, but we don’t know how much we need so that we can subsidize, so that we can have our basic foodstuffs. Because in that case, the price is agreed in advance with the producers, there are no jumps, we don’t care about the stock market and imports. It is a real and true control of one’s resources”, says Bago for “Nezavisne novine”.

He reminds that Bosnia and Herzegovina has as much arable land per square meter as Croatia, they write Independent newspaper.

“Such an area in China produces food for 25 million people. I think that is one piece of information that says it all. And we import 80 percent of our food. This proves an amateurishness in management, a lack of vision. That’s how it is for us in everything,” Bago pointed out.