BiH faces complete ban on food product exports

If Bosnia and Herzegovina fails to meet international standards regarding the control of food production in our country, we face a ban on the export of these goods to the CEFTA market, where our businesses still have free trade, as well as to the Gulf countries, warned Duljko Hasić, an economic analyst, for the Bosnian news agency.

The European Union has long made it clear to Bosnia and Herzegovina that without strict European systems for controlling food production, there can be no export of these goods from BiH to the EU market. However, state authorities have complied with almost none of this to date, while this segment is simultaneously being strengthened in the entity of Republika Srpska.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, solely due to the ban on the export of milk and cream to Croatia after its entry into the EU in July last year, reduced its exports by more than 30 million KM.

Furthermore, the CEFTA countries, where trade for our food companies is still free, are increasingly tightening trade criteria, so domestic producers could soon be operating only on the domestic market, NAP reports.

- If we do not introduce the necessary standards for quality control of food production, foreign markets will be closed to us. And that will happen to us very quickly. There would be no greater punishment for our businesses and citizens than that punishment – warned Hasić.

Bosnia and Herzegovina can currently export only three products of animal origin to the EU market: honey, fish, and raw hides, but analysts are clear that BiH does not have enough of these products even for its own market. Food products from BiH began entering the Gulf countries' market a few months ago, but BiH companies encountered problems with the first shipment because BiH goods do not possess a health certificate, NAP reports.