A few days before the announcement of the New Year's basket, a liter of cooking oil, regardless of whether it is domestic or imported, began to be sold in the markets for almost 100 denars per liter. According to SSO data, last year a Macedonian family bought 37,6 liters of cooking oil, five kilograms of margarine, 1,1 kilograms of butter and 300 grams of lard. Citizens react that they are surprised by the new price increases, because these days they encounter drastically increased prices of basic food products.

Gorancho Lazov, director of "Crystal 1923", told "Sloboden Pechat" that he predicted 100 denars per liter of oil in the summer, but only for March next year, and his assumptions came true several months earlier. According to Lazov, the main factor is the drought, which affected not only Macedonia, but also the entire region.

- We are import dependent on unrefined oil and sunflower, and the reduced supply and increased demand dictate the prices. My idea was to return the sunflower to the Macedonian fields and we started that process alone, but that is obviously not enough, without more serious support from the Government, which presupposes a redistribution of agricultural subsidies. The capacity of "Kristal 1923" (the former Maslodayna from Veles) is 40.000 tons and we can process much more than that. In 2018, on my initiative, together with farmers, agribusinessmen and the Government, a larger campaign for contract production of sunflower was organized and from 2.000 tons, we reached 10.000 tons of domestic sunflower. What dimensions of the drought we are talking about, is shown by the data that this year we bought only 3.000 tons of sunflower - says Lazov.

From the tour he made Free Press, it can be stated that on the shelves in domestic markets mainly brands from domestic factories are offered, there is also Serbian olive oil, and very rarely Hungarian olive oil, which is offered for 140 denars per liter. Macedonian producers assess that the market is well supplied, they do not expect a crisis, but they cannot guarantee how the price of this product will move in the future. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) warned at the beginning of December that the food index in November rose to the highest level since April 2023, and they pointed to the increase in the price of vegetable oils as the main driver. Serbia holds 60 percent of the regional edible oil market.

Part of the domestic importers for Free Press confirm that despite the fact that there is no official decision of the Serbian government to ban the export of edible oil, in practice the companies themselves cancel their contracts or reduce the quantities for our country. Otherwise, according to the Intervention Program for Support in Agriculture for 2024, the financial support for sunflower handed over to registered facilities for purchase directly or through one buyer amounts to MKD 5 per sunflower handed over to registered buyers.

Macedonia imports sunflower oil mostly from Serbia. Last year, the participation of our northern neighbor in the total import of oil was 51 percent (21 million US dollars), followed by Bulgaria with a participation of 25 percent, Ukraine with a participation of 22 percent, Hungary, Albania, Greece and Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the data of "Trend". economies". Meanwhile, according to the Bulgarian media, due to the severe drought, farmers are expecting a poor yield of sunflower and corn almost all over the country.

Our margarine does not go to Serbia, theirs goes to us, the CEFTA agreement is violated

Macedonia is silent about the unfair competition, and instead of free borders, Serbia introduced quotas for the export of agricultural food products that have been in force for more than half a year, and the previous, as well as the current government, did not respond to such protective measures introduced by Serbia, with which the agreement on the Open Balkans is being violated.
One of the examples is the limitation of margarine export with quotas and the ban on the export of oil from Macedonia to Serbia, which creates unfair competition about which the Macedonian authorities remain silent.
The Veles factory managed to export about 360 tons of margarine to Serbia last year, but this year these numbers are not even half due to the introduced quotas to Serbia.
But Lazov claims that the ban on the import of margarine in Serbia continues, even though it is a non-tariff barrier and does not comply with the CEFTA agreement.