Organic Agriculture in Serbia at a Glance 2011

Serbia has been undertaking enormous efforts to modernize its economy and join the WTO and EU. Various support measures are giving positive effects and the appointment of Serbia as a candidate country is expected in the nearest future. In this context, one of the areas which require considerable adjustments is Serbia’s agricultural sector.

Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) regulates markets and mechanisms for many agricultural products and the integration of Serbia’s agriculture into the CAP is a manifold challenge. The GIZ is assisting Serbia with modernizing its economic system and is supporting the country in meeting the EC’s convergence criteria through a variety of programs. Agriculture and the food industry have always been at the core of the GIZ’s programs, and in the past ten years Germany has launched many initiatives to assist the development of this sector.
 

With its abundant agricultural land and its long agro-industrial tradition, Serbia can look forward to transforming these advantageous factors into export opportunities and invigorating its domestic market. The Serbian National Action Plan for Organic Agriculture shows that Serbian political decision-makers have realized the country’s potential for organic farming and started preparing the necessary framework to turn these opportunities into real business. The GIZ has supported the development of the National Action Plan and is assisting Serbia in reducing constraints and bottlenecks hampering the development of the agricultural sector in general, and of the organic sub-sector in particular.

Now the electronic version of the booklet Organic Agriculture in Serbia at a glance 2011 is available. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the current status of organic farming, processing and marketing in Serbia. It is intended for existing and potential stakeholders in the agro-industry and is expected to stimulate discussion and interest in the development of the organic sector in Serbia. Data result from a sector study, which GIZ conducted with Fibl and AFc last year. It is available for download here.

GIZ