UNMIK ON AIR

AUGUST 13 2003

Kosovo milk producers threaten action against imports

(Seremb Gjergjaj)

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on AIR with Sputnik Kilambi and Martin Redi.

A hitherto unknown group of milk producers from Kosovo has threatened to start poisoning milk imported into the country. The only clue to this group apparently is an email address for someone called “Hasan Hyseni”. The threat though is frightening even if unlikely to materialize – the producers said they would inject insulin into tetra pack milk packs sold in stores around Kosovo.

Kosovo’s main milk producers’ union has distanced itself from the threat - a horrible act and totally unacceptable for the Kosovar Society for Milk Products and its members, said union president Ymer Berisha.

Ymer Berisha: In today’s meeting of our society, all the members have distanced themselves from that article. The farmers have many problems but I’d like to mention that the milk makers depend on and are dictated to by the market. We’ve sent several letters and requests to the government but to date we have had no positive answer. There are some moves but we can’t pin our hopes on those.

The police have taken this threat very seriously and say anyone caught poisoning milk will be dealt with very severely. KPS spokesman Shaban Tasholli.

Shaban Tasholli: If only one child is poisoned he would hold a great responsibility. Police has received the information and is investigating this case.

Kosovo’s agricultural sector is in dire straits and milk producers are no exception. Dairy farmers complain they can’t sell their goods in the market because of the bad fiscal policy of the government.

Ymer Berisha: The situation is good for us only during the winter, when the road to Montenegro is closed and imported milk cannot enter Kosovo. So we are at the mercy of nature.

Mujë Shabani, a farmer from Skenderaj has 70 cows but finds it hard to sell his milk. The only way is to sell it privately, he says, complaining bitterly at the lack of attention and support from the government.

Mujë Shabani: There is no help either from the ministry or from the milk factories. The people from the milk factories come and buy our milk for one day and then they disappear for a month or two. The reasons are known - there is no control; there is no attention from the ministry or anyone else.

The hot and dry summer has aggravated the situation and is one of the reasons why farmers are raising their voices. The European Union spends more than 50 percent of its budget on agriculture, why cant the authorities do likewise, they complain. Look at the German government, they say, it has offered 2 billion euros to German farmers because of the dry season, whereas Kosovo’s government did not even lift the taxes imposed.

The minister of agriculture and forestry Goran Bogdanovic says he understands the problems faced by dairy farmers and the whole agricultural sector in Kosovo. But he blames UNMIK for this situation.

Goran Bogdanovic: I support and I understand the demands of those farmers. But that is not a competency under the control of our ministry, it is still under UNMIK competencies and so UNMIK is the one who gives the licenses and allows the import. I hope by the end of this year the competencies will pass on to our ministry, then we can do something, but for now we are not competent to act on issues like this.

The blame game is not very useful though and it remains to be seen whether Minister Bogdanovic can or will in fact deal with the grievances of the farmers. And those are real. With unemployment running so high already. Kosovo cannot afford to have even more people leaving their villages and ignoring their land.

The majority of the traders and grocery shop owners seem to have taken the threat seriously; they are more careful and stick much closer to their costumers. Vehbi Osmani runs the Passable mini-market in Mother Teresa Street in downtown Pristina.

Vehbi Osmani: We are more careful when they approach the milk products in case they do anything, but I believe that they wont do anything and we’ve never had such a case till now. But I’m an optimist, I think a solution will be found.

The owner of the mini-market Marsi in Bill Clinton Street has taken similar measures. Xhemshit Syla knows 90% of his costumers and thinks that something like this wont happen in his store. It’s not so much the packaging of imported milk that makes it more interesting for Kosovars, he says, it’s the date of expiry that’s crucial. Imported milk simply lives longer.

Xhemshit Syla: The other thing is the weather; now it is hot. During the three seasons Autumn, Winter and Spring I sell more local milk than the imported variety. I’d say twice as much.

But not all the shoppers we ran into in the mini market are aware of or concerned by the problems faced by Kosovo’s dairy farmers.

Vox pop: No, I don’t know. I just don’t like that milk. Could be because I do not know who milked the cow. So far we are still buying the milk in ‘tetra pack’, maybe it is because of the packaging.

-No we don’t take it because sometimes it turns sour.

-I use tetra pack. It is because my little girl liked it when she was 6 months old. I never gave a thought to using local production because we do not spend much.

-I would prefer it if all the citizens of Kosova used locally produced milk because it is much better and fresher than the imported one. The imported milk arrives late; when it arrives here the expiry date is short, so I do not buy it.

The milk producers’ union doesn’t believe in poisoning milk imports to voice their displeasure, but refuse to be silenced. If nothing changes by the end of September, they warn, they will be out on the streets with their cows. A warning the powers that be had better heed.

That does it for this edition of UNMIK ON AIR. Thanks for listening.