All the Ministers' Wheat

Finally, the Serbian government decided to disclose information on wheat exports and the profits from the difference in the low purchase price of the 1995 harvest and high prices for which the wheat was exported. The Serbian government was forced to make the disclosure because of bad prospects for the spring sowing and Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic's need to show he can head the cabinet after the "wheat scandal".

The most attractive effort to whitewash Marjanovic came in the form of a statement by Zivojin Matic, director of the republican goods reserves, who suddenly became a Jugopetrol advisor - which means the government is prepared to get rid of him to cleanse itself of the scandal. His statement is interesting because he covers everything but doesn't directly address the main questions: who made him cancel last autumn's tender for the export of 400,000 tons of wheat from the reserves and what amount did he allocate to Marjanovic's Progres.

In the statement handed to Tanjug news agency on the day the government accepted his department's annual operations report and was praised of keeping the market supplied, Matic said statements by the opposition and Governor Avramovic on "alleged enormous state profits" are irresponsible.

He also tried to deny his own claims that his department gained profits of 215 million dinars from wheat sales in 1995. That money was used to repay a debt of 180 million dinars taken for the 1994 harvest, leaving 35 million for the purchase of the 1995 harvest which forced the government to jump in with an additional 154 million for just one third of the amount of wheat it planned to buy. Those figures alone are enough to conclude that there was a huge profit. So what's it all about?

Matic's statement leads to the conclusion that his department earned 35 million dinars from wheat deals but he also has to explain the profit he was left with last summer. If certain ministers told the truth, Matic was left with a surplus of at least 1.5 million tons of wheat. Multiply that amount with last years price of 280 dinars a ton and you get at least 280 million dinars (in dollars he had more). Why then did the Serbian government have to add 154 million dinars? Because certain circumstances did not allow exports, he said later, but only after he complained that he hadn't earned enough and criticized everyone who told him what he should have done.

Another thing that springs to mind is that there is some truth in Matic's assessment that the rumors of huge state earnings from wheat are a lie. Few people believe Serbia earned anything from the wheat. Everyone who came under criticism by Matic claimed that certain ministers earned money along with the prime minister. Matic should be believed when he says the state and his department did not earn enough in the deal but that's nothing to brag about. Also, it seems Marjanovic didn't earn anything from the wheat deal either as director of Progres or prime minister, though some of his deputies and ministers did.

Like any other important republican official, director or newspaper commentator, Matic got his chance to try to save the honor of the prime minister. He doesn't seem to have done a good job so another official, Dragan Tomic director of Jugopetrol and parliament speaker, tried.

It's not clear what Matic did to get Tomic to give him a job as advisor since Jugopetrol wasn't involved with the wheat. Every observer of the import-export deals in Serbia believes that company should have been involved since there's not another logical way to pay for the oil imported under the sanctions. The NIS company was involved with 7,500 tons of wheat exported to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), and there are a lot of trade companies set up by Serbian banks and headed by Tomic's friends so he might be important in arranging the exports.

The story of the wheat exports is illustrated much better by the list of companies that exported it, published by federal customs chief Mihail Kertes on March 15. The very interesting statement said 44 companies exported 322,600 tons of wheat in 1995 and earned 27 million dollars. So the wheat was exported at an average price of 84 USD a ton in a year when the price on the international market didn't drop below 150 USD. The statement added that by February 25 this year, some 55,300 tons of wheat were exported and that 8.9 million USD was earned (an average of 161 USD a ton).

The statement said the best export deals in 1995 were made by the Delta M company, probably owned by Delta Bank (the bank owned by former Serbian deputy Prime Minister Miskovic), whose exports stood at 115,000 tons (an average of 130 USD a ton) followed by Soja-Protein with 35,000 tons (average 142 USD) and TIM-Trade with 27,000 tons (average 90 USD).

Some unusual companies appear on the list: Jugometal (10,000 tons) and Simpo furniture manufacturer (5,600 tons) probably in a compensation deal.

This year's 55,000 tons were exported by five Belgrade companies (DBR Corporation, Agroekonomik, TIM-Trade, Di-Bek and Delta M), two from Novi Sad (Koprodukt and Agrocenter-Hem) and one from Pirot (Centro). Most of the wheat (22,500 tons) was exported to Romania by Koprodukt at an average price of 160 USD a ton and 17,000 tons to Russia at an average of 162 USD.

The publishing of the list seems to have two goals.

First, it shows that Marjanovic's Progres and affiliated PGT aren't on it. The employees of those companies have been placed in an unequal position only because their director is Marjanovic. First, they haven't earned anything from the wheat so far and second they paid an advance for the import of 100,000 tons of wheat and planned exports of another 800,000 tons, but their boss abandoned that idea. Their public protest is understandable, but why didn't they ask for someone with less principled stands or perhaps they know what they can get from Marjanovic.

The second goal could be visible from National Bank Governor Dragoslav Avramovic's question; "Where are the wheat exporters now when the sowing has to be financed".

Anxiety has cornered the Serbian government over the bad start to the sowing. Minister of Agriculture Ivko Djonovic who constantly opposed uncontrolled exports said recently that the situation is so dramatic that the agriculture minister should resign. But he's still asking for 960 million dinars for the sowing and the government keeps promising him the money. He's asking the national bank for loans and wants a freeze on repayment of loans he already received.

Amid that situation, Marjanovic stressed that the sowing is the obligation of the farmers to the state.