The Macedonian Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi informed that several decisions were made Thursday morning at a government session in the area of reducing customs duties for fruits and vegetables to ten percent, with the exception of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, in order to leave room for domestic farmers.
“It’s good that there is an increased export of agricultural products, but the primary market should be ours. Our traders get higher prices in neighboring countries and prefer to sell outside the country, which means that we as a country lose twice – we make up the shortfall by importing, for which a customs duty of 65% is paid. Thus, instead of 100 denars, peppers immediately cost 165 denars without trade margins. We wanted to protect the citizens and that’s why we adopted these measures today,” said Bekteshi in an interview with STUDIO 10 on TV 24.
