Around 80 raspberry producers from Visegrad, Rudo, Bratunac, Novo Gorazde (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Ljubovija (Serbia) and Bijelo Polje (Montenegro) participated at the regional event “Meeting of raspberry producers from the cross-border region “Drina-Tara” held in Visegrad in the period 18-19 March, 2017.

The objective of this regional event was to exchange experiences between raspberry producers within the cross-border region “Drina–Tara” and expert support for improvement of the production in this region.

Professor Mirko Kulina and Vico Grujica from the Agricultural Faculty in Eastern Sarajevo and Adnan Malicevic from the Agricultural Faculty in Sarajevo provided theoretical and practical advices which could be applied in the forthcoming season.

Radmilo Mihailovic, Municipality of Visegrad, LED Department, announced that local subsidies in the agricultural sector for 2017 will amount 40% of total investment for procurement of equipment.

Professor Vico Grujica stated that there is no production without risk and that producers can gain income from the agriculture. As well he stated that networking of agricultural producers in a form of Cooperatives is necessity for the single producers are not strong enough.

Filed visits at the young and older raspberry orchards were conducted at the Agricultural household Milijan Cecez, Sase and Goran Popovic, Rodica brdo as an example of good practice.

At the panel discussion “Current situation and perspectives of production and sale of raspberries in the cross-border region “Drina-Tara” held in Hotel “Andricev konak” on the first day of the regional event were present representatives of Cooperatives, cold storage facility, associations from Visegrad, Rudo, Bratunac, Novo Gorazde (B&H), Ljubovija (SER) and Bijelo Polje (MNE).

As well at the meeting were present representative of USAD Farma II programme based in Sarajevo, representative of Agricultural faculty from Eastern Sarajevo and representative of Ministry of Agriculture of Republic of Srpska.

Conclusions from the panel discussion:

• Importance of networking of raspberry producers at local and regional level;
• Constant improvement of knowledge in raspberry production as a leading agriculture sector;
• Need for standardization of production/traceability;
• Importance of healthy planting materials and proper protection;
• Education of advisory services in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
• To initiate forming of data base of healthy certified planting materials through the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Srpska;
• To establish an institution consisted from experts;
• To improve road infrastructure in rural areas.

Ms. Radmila Bajagic, from the Montenegrin Union of raspberry producers from Bijelo Polje, stated that they established good connections and already developed one project proposal for joint cooperation with the Cooperative “Uvac-Rudo” from Rudo. Also, she expressed the interest for organization of similar event in Bijelo Polje.

Mr. Mirko Mijuskovic from the Cooperatives “Uvac-Rudo” said that their aim should be joint regional cooperation and branding of raspberries from the Lim River and Drina River valley.

This activity is part of the European Union funded project: “Fostering regional cooperation and balanced territorial development of Western Balkan countries in the process towards EU integration” implemented by the Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group (SWG) in South-Eastern Europe.