Seven Farmer Groups Threaten Protest Over Sunflower Price
Seven farmer associations from Vojvodina are demanding an end to the monopoly on sunflower purchases, September subsidies paid without justification, and higher fuel excise refunds.
On August 24, seven farmer associations from Vojvodina signed a joint statement demanding an immediate end to the monopoly on the agricultural products market, a dispute centered on this year’s sunflower crop, and warned of large scale protests if the state fails to respond to their demands. The statement was signed by the Banatska Crnica Initiative for the Survival of Serbia’s Farmers, the Alliance of Banat, the Aradac Farmers Association, the Subotica Association of Agricultural Producers, the Dolovo Farmers and the Novo Selo Farmers.
The associations say this year’s wheat crop was purchased at 20 dinars per kilogram (about 0.17 euros, at the National Bank of Serbia, NBS, exchange rate of roughly 117.5 dinars to the euro), and that the state failed to react. Now, according to the group, the same pattern threatens to repeat itself with the new sunflower crop.
Sunflower Price and the Gap With the Region
According to the statement, sunflower prices in neighboring countries range from 550 to 580 euros per ton excluding value added tax, while domestic producers are offered significantly less. The associations add that crude sunflower oil sells for 1,200 dollars per ton on the world market, and that the gap between the purchase price of the raw material and the price of the finished oil benefits processors and traders rather than farmers.
The associations placed the blame squarely on market intermediaries.
“Cartels are trying to seize the new sunflower harvest at a price far below the regional level, which stands at 550 to 580 euros per ton excluding VAT,” the associations said in the statement.
The statement goes on to raise a second grievance: meat imports the associations describe as being of dubious origin, which they say are driving down the price of domestic livestock, fattening bulls above all, even as the cost of imported farming inputs keeps rising.
What the Associations Are Demanding From the State
The demands in the statement are specific. The associations are calling for the urgent activation of mechanisms to end the monopoly on the agricultural products market, payment of the second installment of subsidies in September without additional cost justification, and the restoration of the fuel excise refund to at least 50 dinars per liter, which they say was previously agreed and signed with the Government of Serbia.
“We demand the immediate activation of all mechanisms to end the monopoly on the agricultural products market, payment of the second installment of subsidies in September without any justification, given that the decree itself states that one part of the subsidies is paid out directly while the other requires justification, then the restoration of the fuel refund to a level of at least 50 dinars per liter, as agreed and signed by the Government of Serbia, and a response from the state to the catastrophic drought,” the farmer associations said in the statement.
The current subsidy stands at 18,000 dinars (about 153 euros) per hectare. In the budget rebalance, which an extraordinary session of the National Assembly of Serbia began debating on August 24, subsidy funds were raised to 118.7 billion dinars (about 1.01 billion euros), up from the previously planned 116.5 billion dinars (about 991.5 million euros).
The Aradac Protest as a Warning Sign
This is not the first action from this circle of associations. On August 16, the Aradac Farmers Association already staged a protest on the Zrenjanin to Novi Sad road, parking tractors along the roadside without blocking traffic. The joint statement now issued by seven associations marks an escalation of that pressure from the local to the national level, carrying a clear warning that the protest will grow larger if the institutions fail to respond.
The Srpske Novine portal previously reported on the scale of the damage caused by this year’s drought, when corn yields were found to have fallen by as much as 60 percent and sunflower was sold below the cost of production. The current statement marks the first time the story has shifted from the damage itself to organized pressure on the state, including an open accusation that a cartel is operating on the market.
How Much Damage Has the Drought Caused?
The scale of the problem is also confirmed by data presented to the National Assembly’s Committee on Agriculture, which estimated drought damage to corn, sunflower and soybean crops at 600 million euros. That figure, combined with the low purchase prices cited by the associations, helps explain why farmers are demanding that the second round of subsidies be paid out in September without additional administrative burden, rather than waiting for the standard cost justification procedure.
The associations did not specify an exact date for a potential protest, nor how many farmers might take part. The next move belongs to the state, whether it will respond to the demands set out on August 24, and with what measures. The pattern so far, the August 16 protest in Aradac that produced no response from the institutions, has now widened to seven associations and the whole of Vojvodina.
