Meeting between farmers and Prime Minister ends, road blocks to continue

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Negotiations between dissatisfied farmers and Prime Minister Ana Brnabic in the Serbian Government ended after almost nine hours without a final agreement.

Following the meeting the farmers said that an agreement was reached on milk subsidies and that they are well on their way to reaching an agreement on the buy-up price of sunflower seeds.

The farmers said they are not giving up on the road blockades, but that they are prepared to enable traffic as a sign of “good will”.

“We did not reach an agreement on the price of sunflower but we think we are very close and we hope all this will be resolved in the coming period,” a farmer from the city of Pancevo told the media, adding that the Prime Minister, ministers and assistant ministers were all constructive throughout the day.

The farmers said that their problems are not new, and appealed to the state to accommodate them this time so they could go back to working their fields.

We note that the farmers are asking for a buy-up price of 700 Euro per ton of sunflower seeds, while the Government’s last offer was 533 Euro. The farmers also demand exemption from duties on up to 100 liters of fuel per hectare of land.

The Serbian Government earlier met their demands for lifting the ban on the export of all types of edible oil.
Negotiation between farmers and Government representatives are to continue.