The public hearing was attended by MPs, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Plant Protection Directorate, expert public, representatives of local self-governments, raspberry growers’ associations, the civil sector and concerned media.
Opening the public hearing, the Chairman of the Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Committee, Aleksandar Senic said that the goal of the public hearing is to ascertain whether the raspberry should be declared a strategic product of Serbian agriculture and employ dialogue among all the stakeholders to determine the role of the state and local self-governments and adequate measures to boost raspberry production.
The participants of the public hearing were addressed by Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Nenad Katanic, raspberry experts Aleksandar Leposavic and Svetislav Petrovic, President of the “Serbian Raspberry” association Dragan Vukailovic and representatives of raspberry growers Dole Radovic and Vladimir Nikolic.
In the course of the public hearing the participants discussed strategies on the raspberry as one of Serbia’s most important export commodities, the economic situation of the raspberry growers, their working conditions and the raspberry buyout price.
Concluding the public hearing, Committee Chairman Aleksandar Senic said that the information the participants shared give the impression that it is necessary to set up a national council for berry fruit which would coordinate the cooperation between the raspberry growers and the state which would ultimately result in the raspberry being declared Serbia’s strategic product.