Fewer and Fewer Hectares for “Ordinary” Farmers: Who Is Buying Land in Vojvodina?
AMO
/ Ed. 23. 11. 2024
Last year alone, the Netherlands exported eggs, dairy products, flowers, and meat worth 36 billion euros. Serbia's entire export for the same year amounted to 28.6 billion euros. The Netherlands has four million cows, while we have no more than 725,000. This Western European country has 13 million pigs, whereas in all of Serbia today, there are as many as there were after World War II - about two million.
The Netherlands is four times smaller in area than Serbia and roughly the same size as the northernmost part of the country, Vojvodina. In addition, Vojvodina and the Netherlands share one common feature—fertile land—and one very significant difference: the state’s approach to that land. The Dutch government’s attitude is clear and evident, as they are the second-largest exporter of agricultural products in the world. In Serbia, however, everything is far more ambiguous—from how the government supports this vital sector to how it treats farmers and farmland.
The article by Ljiljana Bukvić was originaly published with the support of the project Enhancing the Capacities of Serbian Investigative Journalists in Mapping Foreign Influence in Serbia by Danas. You can read the original version in Serbian here.
