Vucic: Ban on wheat exports soon

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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday that a ban on wheat exports would be introduced later this week but that flour exports would be allowed for some time.

“There will be enough wheat for the citizens of Serbia and our neighbors. The price of wheat has skyrocketed from 16 dinars in 2020 to 42-47 Dinars a kilogram today,” he rold reporters in the southern Serbian town of Leskovac commenting developments over the war in Ukraine.

The CEO of the Association Serbia Grains (Zito Srbije) umbrella organization which rallies wheat farming and trading companies Suncica Savovic said earlier in the day that there is no indication of a wheat shortage in Serbia or elsewhere in the world because of the war in Ukraine and sanctions imposed against Russia. “There are no grounds to expect shortages of wheat in Serbia or the world because the two biggest wheat producers, Ukraine and Russia, have dropped out of that trade,” she told the state TV (RTS).

Savovic added that Serbia now has a surplus of 1.2 million tons of wheat. “We had almost 3.7 million tons of wheat after the record harvest of 2021. Our total annual consumption does not reach the level of 1.7 million tons which means that there arew more than 2 million surplus tons for export,” she said adding that 724,000 tons of wheat and 82,000 tons of flour were exported in the first two months of this year.