The Kosovo government is seeking to curb imports of powdered milk in order to protect domestic production. As a protective measure, Minister of Agriculture Armend Muja said on Tuesday that the government has proposed imposing an excise tax.
At a press conference, Muja also said that an agreement had been signed with Kosovo Customs requiring every imported milk product to undergo two control measures.
“It concerns the growing trend of replacing fresh milk produced within the country. This is a situation that affects rural economies throughout Kosovo. From time to time, there is an oversupply of milk. There is an increasing trend of imported products, and one of them is powdered milk. We have concluded that the quantity of powdered milk has increased significantly. Fresh milk is facing growing pressure due to imports of fats and substitute products such as palm oil,” he said.
Muja said that stores across the country have been found selling mixtures that he described as being “in violation of consumer protection law.”
“We proposed an excise tax on powdered milk to the Ministry of Finance. It was then sent to the government and approved. In our stores, we often see cases of mixtures that I classify as violations of consumer protection law. There are attempts to claim that powdered milk or products mixed with palm oil are derived from fresh milk, which is not true. Yesterday, the decision on border controls was signed. Every package of milk entering the country will be subject to two measures. Laboratory analysis will examine the composition of each package, and every product will be properly classified, with no mixing allowed,” he said.
Meanwhile, Naser Bajraktari, a representative of the Milk Producers Association, emphasized that this had been their request, saying that domestic production must be protected.
