Farmers have blocked the bridge over the Velika Morava river that connects the eastern Serbian city of Pozarevac and the E-75 motorway.
The bridge was blocked by over 200 tractors and other agricultural machinery.
Farmers have asked the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture to increase the buying-in price of sunflower from 60 to 90 Dinars per kilo.
“We are now organizing the fourth protest this year. We want everyone to know that the current situation is far from good. Once again the farmers of the Branicevo district have joined Vojvodina farmers in protests…,” farmer Nedeljko Savic said, adding that the Stig Farmers’ Association has had 30 meetings with the Ministry of Agriculture which has done nothing about the problem so far.
At the same time, representatives of the Initiative for the Survival of Farmers organized a tractor protest ride from the town of Stara Pazova to the Belgrade neighbourhood of Batajnica, expressing their dissatisfaction with the purchase price of sunflower and fuel prices for farmers.
They demand that the purchase price of sunflower be 700 Euro per ton, as well as for the government to provide fuel subsidies.
“We give the Ministry (of Agriculture) 48 hours to respond to our demands otherwise we will radicalize the protests,” the Initiative’s president Radoslav Adammovic warned.
Farmers have also staged protests in front of the building that houses the Vojvodinian government in Novi Sad.
Minister of Agriculture Branislav Nedimovic and his colleagues spoke with farmers in Novi Sad, Pancevo and Pozarevac but no agreement has been made as yet.
(RTV, N1, 09.08.2022)
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