Sarajevo, Nov 6 - Bosnia may face shortages of wheat and higher prices of bread next year because of lower autumn sowings across the Balkans, a head of the Bosnian regional farmers association warned on Friday.
The autonomous region, which makes up Bosnia along with the Muslim-Croat federation, is known as the Balkan country's granary.
Vladimir Usorac said autumn sowings were cut by more than three times to only 7,000 hectares because farmers could not sell their produce as millers preferred to import grain than to buy it from local farmers.
He said neighbouring Serbia and Croatia, as well as Hungary -- the main wheat exporters to Bosnia -- had also cut sowings by up to 30 percent this year.
"All these countries may ban grain exports to meet their demand next year, and Bosnia, which does not have sufficient reserves, will have to deal with shortages and higher prices of bread," Usorac told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Usorac also said government subsidies for the sector were much lower than in neighbouring countries.
The Serb Republic government has this year provided subsidies amounting to 250 Bosnian marka ($191) per hectare of wheat sowings and 0.7 marka per kilogramme of sold wheat.
It allocated 80 million marka from 2009 budget of 1.6 billion marka for the agriculture sector but more than a quarter related to last year's debt to the farmers. The sector employs two thirds of the workforce in the region.
Usorac urged governments to draft a strategic plan for grains cultivation to secure needed reserves and avoid future supply disruptions.
He said 2009 maize crop, which has been mostly harvested, was 30 percent down from the last year, with an average seven tonnes per hectare because of drought.
Farmers will plant only 35,000 hectares to maize next spring, down from 70,000 in the last two years, he added.
Farming contributed to less than 10 percent of Bosnia's gross domestic product before the 1992-95 war but covered 70 percent of domestic needs. Facilities were badly damaged in the conflict and some arable land is still covered with land mines.
It now contributes 12 percent of GDP but covers only 35 percent of domestic demand. The imports contribute to a high foreign trade gap.
Bosnian farmers and food producers say they are facing unfair competition from Serbia and Croatia, which impose non-tariff barriers for their products while freely exporting their produce to Bosnia.