The USAID Agribusiness Project has just completed seminars in the southern cities of Kragujevac, Sjenica, Leskovac and Nis to teach livestock producers to be more productive while providing higher-quality animals to meat processors.

The classes were held in cooperation with the local NGO Agrar Kontakt. Roughly 80 farmers and the small- and medium-sized meat processing companies they supply attended the sessions.

The meetings were just a part of the assistance that the USAID Agribusiness Project provides to Serbia’s livestock and meat industries. The project is helping Serbian meat processors become more competitive and to export their products throughout the region and into Western Europe.

In addition to training livestock farmers, the USAID Agribusiness Project is introducing processors to new production technologies that meet international quality and safety standards and improve their packaging and marketing. In addition, USAID is helping them meet foreign buyers and expand their product lines.

USAID’s Agribusiness Project is part of several activities aimed at generating rapid, sustained, broad-based economic growth in Serbia. The project works to increase the sales of agricultural products, stimulate additional agricultural employment, improve efficiency and competitiveness, and develop the agribusiness-enabling environment.