Statistics show that the size of the Serbian livestock industry has decreased by about 60 percent over the past 30 years, with an average annual decline of 2 percent leading to a large import demand from the country, Serbian newspaper Today reported on Feb. 15.
Compared to the same period in 2021, the number of cattle raised in Serbia last December decreased by 6.9%, pigs by 7%, goats by 1.7%, poultry by 3.5% and only sheep by 1.5%. In a 10-year dimension, from 2012-2021, the number of cattle decreased by 11%, pigs by 11.9%, goats by 6.3%, poultry by 10.7 percent, and sheep increased by 1.9 percent.
Serbian experts said that the Statistical Office has not yet published the latest specific numbers of different breeds of livestock and only provided the above-mentioned percentages. Historical data show that in 2018 Se has 881,200 cattle, 3.2 million pigs, 23.1 million poultry, 218,000 goats and 1.79 million sheep. A new livestock census will be conducted from June to September this year, when the real situation will be known.
Serbian experts point out that the red light for the Serbian livestock industry has been on for a long time. In 1990, despite the fact that the Serbian livestock industry was still relatively underdeveloped, it had 1.56 million cattle and 5 million pigs. Today, however, there are less than 200,000 cows in Serbia and the number of pigs has been reduced to about 2 million. About 298,000 tons of pork, 114,000 tons of poultry meat, only 71,000 tons of beef and 34,000 tons of mutton are produced annually. It can be said that the Serbian livestock industry is in a serious crisis, the share of Serbian livestock output in the total agricultural output is only 28.1%, while the proportion of developed countries is often more than 60%. The outstanding problem is that Serbia does not implement development-oriented projects for the livestock sector, such as supporting small farms in the central region, but rather imports as the only solution, which is not sustainable and economical.
Source: Economic and Commercial Section of the Embassy in the Republic of Serbia
Post time: Mar-07-2023