Raspberry growers call new protest in Serbia for June 22

The farmers had already protested earlier in June when about 2,000 of them gathered on the state road in south-western Serbia, but the police prevented them from moving further.

According to news agencies, they demanded that the repurchase price is set at approx 1.6 Euro (180-200 dinars) and also requested talks with representatives of Serbia’s Government, including the Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.

They demanded the resignation of Agriculture Minister Branislav Nedimovic.

However, both Brnabic and Nedimovic had earlier said that the government could not influence the price of raspberries.

Serbia's farmers then threatened to end the harvest unless prices do not go up, and their Association's President Dobrivoje Radovic said that would happen if the prices were not about 1.7 Euros (200 dinars) per kilogram.

He said the farmers should not block the roads but stop picking the fruit instead to protest against the buyers, freezer owners and exporters.

“This year’s harvest is about 30 percent lower than in 2017, and there is no hyper-production to cause the drop in price,” Radovic said.

After talking to Minister Nedimovic, the farmers stopped the protest. Nedimovic told the state RTS television on June 6 that after President Aleksandar Vucic and Brnabic told the farmers the problem could not be solved by blocking the roads, but in negotiations, they decided to end the protest.

However, on Monday, the farmers decided to stage new demonstrations, this time without road blockages. But, they warned, unless the state “does not deal with the buyers’ cartels and freezers’ owners, we will decide on further actions,” Nedimovic said.

The farmers called on Vucic to directly get involved in negotiations.

In the meantime, Polish farmers on Monday also stopped picking raspberries, black currant and other similar fruit, demanding higher prices and requesting from their government to pass a new law on the repurchase.

The production cost of a kilogram of raspberries in Poland is 0.79 Euro, while they can sell them for only 0.51 or 0.56 Euros, according to official data.

Last year's price was 0.81 Euro.