Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Đurić: State will assist farmers in Kosovo and Metohija

Director of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo-Metohija Marko Đurić said on Monday that the state would assist the development of agriculture in the southern province of Serbia.

Đurić toured the raspberry plantations and cold storage facilities owned by Serb entrepreneurs in the municipality of Štrpce in the far south of Kosovo and Metohija.

He said that the state would enable Serbian entrepreneurs to take out loans under favorable conditions, and would also facilitate the sale of their produces.

We will make sure that fruit producers step up the capacities of their cold storage facilities and create conditions for the organized purchase of produce, said the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija.

Farmer Slađan Živkovic from the village of Berevac, whose raspberry plantations cover 40 ares, complained that the biggest problem encountered by the producers in the area was the lack of asphalted road, and Đurić pledged that the road would be built by spring.

He underscored that the Serbian government would also finance the building of apartments for the returnees, so that the Serbs that had been displaced and could not go back to their original homes, could return to the area in which they would have conditions for a good and safe life.

Đurić visited the cold storage facilities Skardus and Vakcinium in Štrpce, the main purchasers of raspberry from that area.