Mameledžija for NAP: BiH's raspberry market is worth around 300 million KM annually

A meeting of raspberry producers, representatives of cold storage facilities for raspberries, and representatives of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is being held today in Novi Travnik, where an attempt will be made to find a solution to the problem faced by raspberry growers from the Federation due to the low purchase price of raspberries this year, writes NAP.

This year, cold storage facilities offered a maximum of 1.5 KM per kilogram of raspberries, which the growers rejected, considering it a collapse of BiH's raspberry farming.

The president of the "Travnička malina" association, Edin Mameledžija, previously told the Patria agency that the raspberry market in Bosnia and Herzegovina is estimated at around 300 million KM annually, and that the state must protect growers at all costs.

- We demand that the purchase price of raspberries in BiH follows the prices on the European market. Only in this way can we be competitive and help the BiH economy - said Mameledžija.

Owners of cold storage facilities claim that they have not sold all of last year's raspberry stocks, which is why they offered a price almost twice as low for raspberries as in 2016. It is said that BiH cold storage facilities bought raspberries from BiH growers during the summer season but waited until Christmas to place them on the European market, when the price of raspberries is highest. Then, enormous quantities of raspberries from Poland appeared at more favorable prices, so raspberries from BiH remained in the cold storage facilities.

Raspberry growers warn that some buyers want to get rich overnight at the expense of BiH raspberry growers, but they hope that they have now seen that this is not possible.