"Agriculture is a hostage to politics," claims Kemal Hrnjic, the Minister of Agriculture in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, expressing his frustration over the rejection of the Agricultural Strategy proposal by the House of Peoples. Whether with or without the strategy, the agricultural sector faces challenges due to weather conditions and import lobbies. We discussed these issues with Minister Hrnjic.

Hrnjic spoke about the failed Strategy proposal:

“We are caught in political jaws. All other strategies passed smoothly in Parliament except for the Agricultural Strategy. It would have been just a roadmap. No one ever pointed out a problematic part of the text.”

He also touched on milk and meat production in BiH:

“We've reached the best solutions. Regarding dairy farming, we found a way to comply with EU regulations while maintaining the reality of BiH. Dairy farmers have more money even though the strategy wasn't adopted because we found an alternative method. The decision was adopted by the Government of the Federation of BiH, but we want to have a foundation in the Strategy. It's about one million KM. It's not enough, but it's a pilot project, and we want to see the number of interested parties. More than 90 applications have already arrived at the ministry,” Hrnjic stated, adding that it's about financial support.

He tried to motivate and advise young people who want to engage in agriculture.

“Agriculture is hard work, but food production has no alternative. Young people who decide to produce food will have a stable future and live in a healthier environment. In my opinion, there will be many interested in engaging in agriculture,” Hrnjic said to N1.

He specifically addressed the dairy sector.

“The approach to the dairy sector is showing good results. The Federation of BiH is leading compared to the Republika Srpska in milk production. There is room for price reduction in stores,” he emphasized, adding:

“We can only compete through quality production. Our external deficit in milk is reflected in the import of powdered milk, butter, and cheese. These are high-value products that are underdeveloped in BiH. The Federation of BiH has encouraged producers to change the market situation.”