A month of gathering herbs can earn 27,000 KM

Professor Nezir Tanović from the Faculty of Agriculture and Mediterranean Studies in Mostar told the BH news agency Patria (NAP) that wild mushrooms, medicinal herbs, and berries worth around 360 million marks go to waste every year in the mountains and forests of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Professor Tanović believes that every unemployed person in Bosnia and Herzegovina can earn a solid salary during the summer and autumn seasons by collecting wild fruits from the forests.

- In Trebinje, there is a family of four who earn about 27,000 KM every year in just one month by picking sage – Tanović told NAP, adding that one can earn about 3,000 KM in a month of mushroom picking.

- In 2002, BiH exported wild forest fruits worth about three million. Last year, this export amounted to about 40 million. However, although the progress is evident, we still cannot be satisfied. Because that is only about ten percent of what grows throughout the mountains and forests in BiH – says Tanović.

He adds that BiH's forests are one big factory, which does not require investment, but only protection from destruction, and which, in return, can employ thousands of workers every year.

Tanović says that BiH still does not have an organized system for controlling and encouraging collectors of wild plants, and that all procurement and placement take place through a few commercial companies in the country, but that despite this, collectors have no problems with placing their goods.