Agriculture ministers of Montenegro and Israel discuss further cooperation

Podgorica, Montenegro (28 May 2014) - Israel is willing to share its experience in the application of latest skills and technologies in agriculture with Montenegro’s farmers in order to achieve better results, the meeting between the two countries’ agriculture ministers Predgar Ivanović and Yair Shamir concluded in Podgorica earlier today.

Montenegro’s Agriculture Minister Predrag Ivanović told the press following the meeting that he was impressed by Israel’s willingness to transfer its experience in promoting agricultural production, irrigation, researches, as well as its achievements in the forestry sector.

"One of our challenges in agriculture is how to increase quantity and quality of food. Israel is far ahead of us in the use of technology, innovation and application of know-how in the field of agriculture and we have a lot to learn from them in order to achieve better results in agriculture. I am sure that our cooperation will be slowly transferred to other sectors of the economy, which will contribute to the strengthening of bilateral cooperation ", Minister Ivanović explained.

One of the topics at the meeting’s agenda, according to Minister Ivanović, was the way of encouraging Montenegro’s agriculture by using the experience of Israel in the field of irrigation and application of new technologies in processing semen which is not the GMO.

"We also focused our attention on strengthening cooperation between our research institutions and creating conditions for long-term exchange of students and professionals. We talked about how to start a pilot project in which companies from Israel would show our farmers how to use technology and achieve better results. Furthermore, we discussed support for the forestry sector, where we have developed three projects related to fire prevention, forest diseases and reforestation, " Minister Ivanović said.

He emphasised that Israel has done wonders in the field of forestry, as it planted 160,000 hectares of deserted area with more than 200 million seedlings.

"We have much to learn in order to further develop forestry and wood processing in Montenegro. These are projects that cannot be implemented within a short period of time. Mr Shamir’s visit is important as it strengthens friendly relations and commitment to developing these projects. It also creates conditions to commit private companies to long-term cooperation, " Montenegro’s Agriculture Minister underlined.

Minister of Agriculture of Israel Yair Shamir said that there is a long list of items that will take central stage in cooperation between the two states.

"Today, we are continuing the conversation we have started in Tel Aviv. Here we are with companies operating in the field of agriculture and the goal is to get new inputs and reversible response from them that our intentions can be put into practice and to make sure the agreement on the project has gone one step further, " Mr Shamir told the press conference in Podgorica.