Livestock production: Present situation and future development directions in Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Livestock production is important branch of agriculture in Republic of Serbia. Over 700.000 households are engaged in this production, which is over 55% of total number of households. Livestock production provides necessary products (milk, meat, eggs) for nutrition of domestic population. Also, livestock production provides raw materials for food industry (dairy plants, slaughterhouses, meat industry, conditory industry and leather industry). Livestock production is expected to provide high quality products for export, primarily beef and lamb meat. Chance/opportunity for export exists also for cheeses of high quality (especially sheep and goat cheeses) of defined origin and quality. Based on available data, current situation in livestock production is assessed as inviolable. Number of heads of all species of domestic animals and poultry has been constantly decreasing over the period of last 12 years. The greatest decrease of number of heads of livestock was recorded in years 2000, 2001 and 2002, in all species of domestic animals. During this period, number of cattle decreased by 18,6%, of pigs by 11,8%, sheep by 12,3%, number of goats by 54,1%, horses by 66,0% and poultry by 28,0%. So, by the end of 2007, number of cattle was 1.087.000, pigs 3.832.000, sheep 1.606.000, goats 149.000, horses 18.000 and poultry 16.422.000. Republic of Serbia will in its near future become member of European Union (EU) and World Trade Organization (WTO), which means that livestock production should prepare for competition on unique developed market, without any state trade barriers. Serbia has been preparing for this since 2006 when it signed bilateral agreement on free trade with neighbouring countries - Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and in this way became part of the market and accepted the competition rules on the free market. Accession to EU and WTO includes liberalization of trade in livestock products, low possibility for import protection, implementation of quality standards (HACCP; ISO, Global GAP), reduction of the level of domestic support, discontinuing of export subsidies, increase of profitability and ability to be competitive on the international market.