The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Cvetan Tripunovski, held a meeting today in the municipality of Kavadarci with the two agricultural associations from the region, the Federation of Farmers and the Association of Small Family Wineries due to the upcoming purchase of grapes. At the same time, he said that the Ministry is the one who will announce the price, not any of the wine cellars.

Tripunovski added that the Ministry, in accordance with the Law, prescribed a methodology for calculating the production price of the two most represented wine varieties, that is Smederevka and Vranec. In accordance with that methodology and in accordance with the Law, the Ministry published a Call that lasted for about 15 days, ended last week, and as the Minister announced, an agreement was concluded with the Agricultural Institute - Skopje, which in the coming period should come out with a production price for the two most represented varieties. and that production price should be increased by 25% as a profit to the growers.

It is true that we have a slight delay, but that is because if the previous Government led by SDSM had promptly adopted the methodology and harmonized it with legislation, if it had harmonized it with all the procedures, today we would have had a situation where we would have just published a Call. However, we are doing our best to meet the deadline", Tripunovski concluded.

Tripunovski indicated that he informed all those present today that in the upcoming purchase that will follow, every purchase place will be covered by a representative from the Agricultural Inspectorate. Each inspector will be in charge of a surveyor. Every inspector who has a rangefinder will also have some training on how to use it correctly. In the coming days, the inspectorate will make an additional inspection of all the scales that exist at the purchase points, because in the past there have been manipulations in the measurement, both in the measurement of sugar units and in the quantity.

I informed those present that the last year's denar, which was promised by the previous government, has not yet been paid, but we, with the repurposing of the Program, are providing funds in the coming weeks and that denar will be released to the growers. In the amount of about 76 million denars, the amount for last year's denar will be paid, Tripunovski promised.

He indicated that the Ministry is constantly monitoring the situation and will not allow anyone to play with the labor of the growers. The ministry will be a real corrective.

The minister informed that this year, according to estimates from the field, there will be a reduced amount of wine grapes produced.

Weather conditions take their toll, and the situation of non-functional Water Management in the past years has resulted and is one of the culprits of the reduced amount. However, I also appreciate the information from the field that the quality is excellent. And it is my responsibility to ensure that quality is adequately paid for, the minister pointed out.

He added that the goal in the coming years is to increase wine production, to increase exports, and this will mean a serious foreign currency inflow to the state based on wine exports.