At the proposal of the Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic, the Committee decided to have a joint discussion on both items on the agenda and that the time for the representatives of agricultural associations in the discussion be 10 minutes, and for the proposer of the conclusion 20 minutes. The Chairman informed the members of the Committee that this sitting is being held at the request of the Fruit Growers Association "Our Fruits Serbia".

Jelena Blagojevic, State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, informed the members of the Committee about the results achieved by the Work Group for the Improvement of Berry Production to date, which includes producers, buyers, scientists, representatives of the Republic Statistical Office, Serbian Chamber of Commerce and other competent ministries and institutions. She said that the Work Group focuses on the state and problems in raspberry growing, with proposals for specific measures to overcome them.

Proposals for solving problems in raspberry growing were given by representatives of the Association of Berry Producers "Zlatni Breg", Fruit Growers Association "Our Fruits Serbia", Association "Willamette", Alliance "Serbian Raspberry", as well as representatives of the cooperative from the village of Velika Reka, Mali Zvornik and a producer from the village of Skadar near Osecina. The producers proposed, among other measures, the allocation of five percent of the agricultural budget for intervention measures, conversion of cooling capacities into public warehouses, where producers would store raspberries until a satisfactory purchase price is achieved, establishment of a fruit commodity exchange with a logistics centre, provision of adequate credit for raspberry production, introduction of seasonal intervention measures, especially in rural parts of Serbia, reopening of cooperative cold stores, and more.

Following a lengthy discussion, the Committee members adopted the Conclusion on the creation of an environment for safer production and storage of berries and soft fruits: 1) The Committee recommends that funds should be allocated from the agricultural budget for seasonal market interventions to support the production and storage of fruit when there are market disruptions and prices are too low, thus preserving the income security of farms; 2) provide cooling capacities that would be converted into a kind of public warehouses, where producers who are not satisfied with the price during the purchase season could store fruit and store it until better market conditions, with the state and producers sharing the storage costs in solidarity; 3) provide funds to subsidise favourable loans for fruit production.

Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic said that the Committee will adopt this conclusion at the first subsequent meeting in an unchanged text.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic, and attended by the following Subcommittee members and deputy members: Slobodan Petrovic, Dragan Jovanovic, Milija Miletic, Dejan Bulatovic, Dijana Radovic, Zika Gojkovic, Jozsef Tobias, Radoslav Milojicic and Miroslav Aleksic, as well as MP Risto Kostov, who is not member of the Committee.