By Medina Malagic – Sarajevo

The EU Food and Veterinary Delegation is on a ten-day stay in B&H, where it was unofficially confirmed by the President of the Association of Milk Producers of the FB&H entity of B&H MehmedNiksic of the possibility that the EU Delegation would give the green light for B&H to export its dairy products to the EU.

The EU Delegation will be in B&H in order to provide an assessment and evaluation of the inspections of dairy farms and production centers that intend to export to the EU by the B&H authorities that are responsible for this area.

According to President of the Association Niksic, dairy farmers in B&H are sufficiently prepared to export their products to the EU, based on the stringent EU standards. Unsurprisingly, he cites the main obstacle in the export of dairy to the EU is a political one.

B&H milk exports posed a huge problem as Croatia was set to join the EU Last July, since B&H exported more than 60 percent of its milk to Croatia, but with Croatia’s accession to the EU, Bosnian farmers were left in a volatile position. Many of B&H’s laws did not conform to EU standards regarding hygiene and the availability of laboratories that would offer certificates on potential exports.

Since Croatia’s entry to the EU, farmers and producers of dairy products from B&H have been exerting pressures on the government to do more in this field, and the main contention was that small farmers were set to be the biggest losers upon Croatia’s EU accession, while they had previously benefited from exporting their milk and other dairy products to Croatia, and even though EU harmonization laws were adopted, the main problem, as usual in B&H, was implementation.

B&H was excluded from the list of countries that could export products of animal origin, such as dairy to the EU because it did not prove to the EU that it had the capacity to meet its food safety standards. As a result, this seriously hampered the efforts of B&H farmers and small producers

If the EU Delegation provides a positive assessment during its stay here, then B&H farmers will finally be able to export their dairy products to the EU. A decision on this is expected within two months.

Shortly prior to the start of the EU Delegation visit, the Head of the EU Delegation to B&H Peter Sorensen said that B&H needs to urgently do more to adopt to EU standards on food and feed safety controls on farms and milk businesses, as well as to adopt laws such as the Veterinary Law, Law on Food Safety and the Law on Agriculture and Rural Development.

While B&H farmers assert the high-quality of their milk and say that all that is missing is an official EU certification to serve as the required proof of conformity to food safety standards, the heavy decentralization of the country and frequent political obstructions have shown to be the main obstacle in B&H’s inability to effectively handle this situation. A primarily technical issue that could have been systematically resolved without unnecessary political obstacles turns into a question in B&H of who and what institution is responsible for what part of the task. Each entity has its own Minister of Agriculture and there is no state level Ministry of Agriculture. For a task of this magnitude that requires a systematic and centralized approach, it can be said that the lack of a functioning administration and lack of ability, as well as willingness to harmonize its laws quickly with EU standards was the main problem surrounding B&H’s attempts to have its dairy products exported to the EU.