TRENDS IN PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING OF MEAT IN THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA

In the Republic of Srpska (Entity of Bosnia and Her zegovina), livestock, especially cattle and sheep, have a long tradition. The potential for the development o f animal husbandry is a major, taking into account the available land capacity. On the other hand, consump tion of proteins of animal origin grows proportiona lly with the increase in living standards. EU countries are also moving away from the strategy of further inten sification of production of animal products because it would h ave meant even greater pressure on land resources, biodiversity, and quality and safety of products, a nd this is not what European producers now want. Th is situation creates room for producers from RS to cre ate supply for the European market. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the capabilities and trends in me at production in the Republic of Srpska, and the wi llingness of this part of the RS economy to compete in the Eu ropean market. The authors used the method of comparative analysis to observe the livestock and m eat production in the RS in the period 2005-2011.


INTRODUCTION
In the RS there are climatic, geographic, and socio-economic conditions for the development of agriculture, especially livestock. The rapid development of the organized commercial agriculture is disturbed by small and fragmented land (small plots of land), technical knowledge of producers (modern methods and the latest developments in agriculture), availability of raw materials (seeds, breeding materials, plant protection, fertilizer) as well as lack of funds and reducing the purchasing power of most of the population. On the other hand, consumption of proteins of animal origin grows DETUROPE -THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM Vol.4 Issue 3 2012ISSN 1821-2506 43 proportionally with the increase in living standards. Thus, the consumption of these types of proteins in the EU is twice the world average and the trend is increasing because of growth in living standards, due to EU enlargement and increase of population. EU countries cannot meet the needs of the proteins of animal origin from its own resources. EU countries are also moving away from the strategy of further intensification of production of animal products because it would have meant even greater pressure on land resources, biodiversity, and quality and safety of products, and this is not what European producers now want (European Commission, 2010). This situation creates room for producers from RS to create supply for the European market. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the capabilities and trends in meat production in the Republic of Srpska, and the willingness of this part of the RS economy to compete in the European market.

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS
The authors used the method of comparative analysis to observe the livestock and meat BiH as a country, given that the foreign trade exchange is in the jurisdiction of the state rather than entity in Bosnia.

The situation of livestock production in the RS
The available arable land is very important for the development of agricultural production, notably livestock production. There is available, in average, around 988.000 ha in the Republic of Srpska (Fig. 1.).   46 livestock production in the RS. This leads to the conclusion that the production of beef is directly dependent on the production of livestock or the number of beef in RS.
Pig production, in addition to cattle breeding and poultry production, is a very important branch of animal production. According to statistics, the total production of (pork) meat for the monitoring period ranged, on average, around 6.028.73 tons. For the monitoring period, on average, pork production per capita was about 3 kg, which is very low production, especially if you consider the possibilities of this production in RS. Pork production indices show an extremely high value of the average growth of 54.67% per annum, as compared with negative growth in the number of pigs. This is evidence of increased imports of pigs in the RS and the loss of local ties inoculants production and processing in the pig production.
Sheep production in the RS is most prevalent in the hilly mountainous areas, which are rich in large parts of the natural pastures. The RS is characterised mainly with the extensive production of sheep, with a mixed production of meat, milk and wool. Production of sheep meat is modest compared to other meat types. Average annual quantity is around 170 tons.
But we have to take into account that, traditionally, sheep meet is marketed trough direct sales which is not recorded by statistical office. Index of sheep meat production averaged  Processed meat, especially dry and smoked meat, is a tradition in the RS, which lasts for centuries. What started as just one of many activities that are performed in a household, and then turned into a cottage industry, today represents a significant portion of the food sector.
RS with its own present production is unable to close the balance of meat and therefore larger quantities of meat are imported, especially for processing. Those are primarily economic reasons, i.e. the global market offers a large quantity of frozen meat, much DETUROPE -THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM Vol.4 Issue 3 2012ISSN 1821-2506 47 cheaper than domestic production, but poor quality. Low prices of imported meat have disincentive effect on domestic production of meat (Mirjanić et al., 2010(Mirjanić et al., , 2011. During the monitoring period in the RS, the amount of purchased livestock for slaughter has increased, and increase in the total quantity of meat originating from local slaughterhouses, especially in poultry ( Figure 5). The opportunities of placement of meat in foreign markets are evident, but this placement is limited to a certain number of countries. In most cases, the exports of meat are due to incompatibility of veterinary-sanitary regulations with regulations in the environment. In addition, there is insufficient motivation of primary production to enter into commercial production.
Then, failure of basic safety standards, improper organization of purchasing, quality inconsistency, lack of knowledge of foreign markets, are just some of the reasons why the potential for exports, which exists in this sector, is not used. 49 The market chain in meat production and processing The market chain in meat production is largely unorganized and short, because a large part of production ends within the household or in local markets (official and unofficial). One part of the production, however, is collected/purchased through the slaughterhouses, directly or through intermediaries, making it possible to extend the chain of production thus generating additional value of the product. Small amounts of meat products are exported to neighbouring countries (Albania, Serbia, Croatia), Figure 7. One of the main reasons for short market chain is that a significant portion of production is in the hands of small producers, mainly with extensive production. The largest portion of meat is produced by family farms that are commodity producers with ten bullocks, a hundred pigs and sheep and in recent years, there is a tendency to increase Poultry production with 10 000 chickens for fattening. There are also organized producers (relatively large producers for the conditions of production in the RS) who fatten cows on their own farms or in the organized fattening on member farms. This situation indicates that production can be distinguished in three groups of producers of meat, that are determined by different production and sales market chains, 4  -Companies engaged in the production of animal feed, processing or selling of meat trying to establish a vertical connection, which would reduce the market or price fluctuations that are characteristic for meat production -In addition to them, there are companies that saw their opportunity for profit in meat producing and through the privatization process came to productive resources Medium-sized producers are most important from the perspective of agricultural policy, because the biggest production is done by them in all areas of meat (beef, pork, lamb and poultry).

Reform of the CAP as a chance for producers of meat in RS
Livestock sector of the EU had a steady growth in recent decades. The old EU12 Member States had the strongest growth in the period 1961-1985, when milk production increased by 70%, pigs by 120% and poultry by 300%. Production of beef and milk stagnated after 1985, mainly as a result of changes in the CAP. Production of pig and poultry continued to grow by around 4% per annum. Today the EU is a net importer of beef and mutton, and a net exporter of pork and dairy products.
Livestock production in the EU is heavily influenced by the Common Agricultural Policy -CAP. Although the CAP in the last few decades has experienced significant reforms and further characterized by direct subsidies and export taxes that exist for most livestock products. Long-time negotiations within the World Trade Organization -WTO on the reduction of export subsidies for EU products can cause a rise in prices of livestock products from the EU, taking into account production costs suffered by EU producers. Therefore, the sharp sanitary regulations that the EU imposes on imported products of animal origin, are the how the EU protects the domestic market.
Apart from market measures next important factor that can affect change CAP in terms of support for livestock production is the impact of this kind of production on the environment and ecological factors. Feed production requires large amounts of land, water and other inputs, and produces large amounts of nitrogen and leads to the greenhouse effect.
Livestock production accounts for about 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions at the EU level. About 75% protein livestock feed needed in the EU production are covered from imports, mainly soybeans from countries of South America, allowing the EU to indirectly affect the environmental factors of production outside its territory.
Directly related to livestock production were also questions about the conditions of keeping animals and animal health care. The last 10-15 years the EU market was disturbed by the great crises ranging from mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease, bird flu, swine fever, etc.
All these factors influence the policy to support livestock production from the EU budget, and on the other side on the preferences of EU consumers. No EU tax payers want to set aside money for the production of products of suspicious quality, which is, in addition, disrupt the balance of the environment, neither the EU consumers want to consume such products. Awareness of EU consumers therefore moves in the direction of consuming products that are produced in an environmentally healthy area, which meet their quality and hygiene standards (The European Union, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2011).

CONCLUSION
In the Republic of Srpska a relatively small amount of meat is produced, with respect to the available natural resources. Therefore, this is a limiting factor in supply in the domestic and foreign markets. On the other hand, coming closer to the EU market and the characteristics of demand in this market provide an opportunity for domestic producers to increase production for export. Therefore, there is a need to increase livestock production through: DETUROPE -THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM Vol.4 Issue 3 2012ISSN 1821-2506 52 -better organization of fattening cattle in terms of compliance capacity of primary and secondary production, and development of strategic orientation in the production and processing of meat, in this sense to harmonize the institutional, political and economic support systems prevailing in the country with the strategic orientation of sectoral policies; -improving the quality of production especially in terms of ensuring continuity and quality level, in this sense, the introduction of quality grades of carcasses at slaughter, especially in pigs, go to the system of buying meat per unit and not kilo, hence producers would be stimulated and rewarded for better quality meat in its production; -improve the situation in the meat production and processing by economic measures, which occurs as a necessary precondition for export, but also use preaccession funds, including making available soft lending to investment in livestock production, and systematic support measures that would be compatible with economic and organizational rules in livestock; -encourage efficient forms of cooperation between producers, feed industry for poultry and processing industries and in that sense, support the establishment of agricultural chambers, which would bring together representatives of all sectors in the chain and allow the establishment of rules and agreements in the field of production and market agricultural products; -Establishing laboratories for testing the quality of meat, and accrediting them, in order to adequately monitor the quality and provide support of local institutions to the export of products of animal origin -an increase of work on prevention and combating of infectious diseases in order for BiH to obtain a license for the export of products of animal origin; Taking into account the resources available and the needs of European consumers for high quality protein of animal origin, one of the strategic orientations of Srpska in the period before accessing the European Union could be the production of animal products, i.e.
primarily meat for the European market.

Summary
One of the strategic objectives of economic policy of each country is to improve food production, in order to attain the higher level of self-sufficiency in food needs. On this basis, it follows that meat production is a very important resource for food production, so that production is given adequate attention both legal and institutional. In the Republic of Srpska (Entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina), livestock, especially cattle and DETUROPE -THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM Vol.4 Issue 3 2012ISSN 1821-2506 53 sheep, have a long tradition. The potential for the development of animal husbandry is a major, taking into account the available land capacity. On the other hand, consumption of proteins of animal origin grows proportionally with the increase in living standards. Thus, the consumption of these types of proteins in the EU is twice the world average and the trend is increasing because of growth in living standards, due to EU enlargement and increase of population. EU countries cannot meet the needs of the proteins of animal origin from its own resources. EU countries are also moving away from the strategy of further intensification of production of animal products because it would have meant even greater pressure on land resources, biodiversity, and quality and safety of products, and this is not what European producers now want. This situation creates room for producers from RS to create supply for the European market. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the capabilities and trends in meat production in the Republic of Srpska, and the willingness of this part of the RS economy to compete in the European market. Then, failure of basic safety standards, improper organization of purchasing, quality inconsistency, lack of knowledge of foreign markets, are just some of the reasons why the potential for exports, which exists in this sector, is not used.
Therefore, there is a need to increase livestock production through: better organization of fattening in terms of compliance capacity of primary and secondary production, improving the quality of production especially in terms of ensuring continuity and quality level, improve the situation in the meat production and processing by economic measures, which occurs as a necessary precondition for export, but also use pre-accession funds, including making available soft lending to investment in livestock production, encourage efficient forms of cooperation between producers, feed industry for poultry and processing industries and in that sense, support the establishment of agricultural chambers, which would bring together representatives of all sectors in the chain and allow the establishment of rules and agreements in the field of production and market agricultural products; Establishing laboratories for testing the quality of meat, an increase of work on prevention and combating of infectious diseases in order for BiH to obtain a license for the export of products of animal origin.