Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management focused on preserving production and solving problem of surplus agricultural products

The focus of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management is on agricultural producers and all their problems. The priorities of this department are to preserve production and solve the problem of surplus agricultural products.

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Aleksandar Stijović, within the Government's video campaign "Potpisujem" (I sign) on the first 100 days of work, pointed out that in the previous 100 days they had conducted thousands of conversations with Montenegrin citizens from north to south, listened to their problems and managed to recognise the key challenges "which we are solving with great care".

"We are working on settling the situation in the forestry sector and bringing order into the use of forest natural treasures of Montenegro. In addition, we are working to bring order into hunting and fishing in our forests and rivers. In the water management sector, our focus is on providing water in Montenegrin villages where there is no water, as well as bringing order into the exploitation of gravel from Montenegrin rivers," said Stijović.

We bravely, honorably and sincerely started the fight against corruption, abuse of official position and organized crime in agriculture, forestry and water management.

"We have prepared numerous pieces of information for the prosecution and presented cases that destroyed our most important resources and companies. We will not stop, crime does not pay off, no criminal activity will go unpunished," said Stijović.

He assessed that transparency in work, removal of data classification and public publication of documentation have become the standard in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, "because the public has the right to know".

"We have published information on the Abu Dhabi Fund - the ADMAS project, suspected of harmful actions and organized crime of a large number of high-ranking civil servants. We pointed out the systematic destruction of the company 13. jul Plantaže and the abuse of official position," he said.

He said that they are fighting to save the company Plantaže and the employees of that company and return the company to its former glory.

"We protected state interests by revoking the concession of Vektra Jakić and preventing further destruction of forest resources," Stijović added.

The Ministry has provided funds under more favorable conditions for the support of agriculture in cooperation with international partners for 2021 in the amount of EUR 11.3 million of financial support from the EU.

"These funds will be available to small and medium-sized enterprises for investments in the sectors: milk processing; meat processing; wine production; processing of fruits and vegetables, processing of aromatic and medicinal herbs; olive processing and fish processing," said Stijović.

He pointed out that they enabled the use of the remaining IPARD funds from 2017 in the amount of EUR 6.5 million.

He assessed that they created an innovated Agro Budget, stating that it is the obligation of the Ministry to preserve every producer in Montenegro.

"We are working on strengthening domestic products and their better placement in Montenegrin markets. We will establish a database of domestic agricultural producers according to the type of product, location, quantities, quality and structure of products," said Stijović.

He believes that everyone can help us have high-quality domestic products, competitive and healthy, emphasising that we buy domestic products and in that way help our economy to recover.