Economic aggression against FRY in the form of sanctions, blockade and permanent pressures of the West continues even after formal lifting of sanctions of the UN Security Council and signing of the Agreement on the Solution to the Kosovo Crisis. This aggression also caused difficulties in the production and export of Yugoslav medicinal plants and products thereof. It prevents or hampers Yugoslav export of medicinal plants, above all to the EU and markets of developed Western countries, and bans import of new processing technologies.

NATO aggression on Yugoslavia caused enormous damage assessed at over US$ 100 billion. In addition to material damage, use of prohibited chemical and other weapons resulted in environmental pollution with unforeseeable consequences. That will inevitably reflect on the production and export of medicinal plants.

In spite of economic blockade Yugoslavia has considerable comparative advantages in the area of production and processing of medicinal plants. Therefore, search for adequate strategy of export and import of medicinal plants is an economic and social task of paramount importance.

Owing to its geographic and climatic characteristics, the extent of forests, bare mountainous terrain, pastures, unproductive and barren soil, ecologically pure oases and chemically unpolluted areas, Yugoslavia abounds in different medicinal and aromatic plants.

In the absence of new assessments and research, for the assessment of production and export potentials of medicinal plants one may partly use the data from the period of relatively stable and quiet situation until the outbreak of crisis in former Yugoslavia in 1991.

According to the data on the sale and purchase in the territory of former Yugoslavia, until its breakup some 6.000 tons of medicinal and aromatic plants have been collected annually. In Serbia only some 50 species of medicinal and aromatic plants have been purchased.

In regular circumstances, income from medicinal and aromatic plants was a significant item in Yugoslavia's foreign-currency income. Chamomile, mint, linden flower and juniper accounted for the greatest share of export. The biggest importers of these products were FR Germany, France, USA, Switzerland and Italy. Until 1991 these five countries accounted for nearly 90% of the total export of medicinal plants from ex-Yugoslavia.

In spite of continuous economic aggression against Serbia and FR Yugoslavia, export of medicinal plants and preparations made of medicinal plants from FR Yugoslavia on the markets of aggressor countries did not stop, particularly export of preparations necessary for their pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. Export of medicinal herbs and preparations thereof from FR Yugoslavia in 1998 equaled some 2400 tons, with foreign currency receipts totaling approximately US$ 3.3 million. The major importing countries for Yugoslav medicinal plants and preparations were Germany, Macedonia, Switzerland, Italy and France. Export of medicinal plants and preparations accounted for 1.5% of the Yugoslav export in 1998.

Serbia and FR Yugoslavia have great possibilities for the development of production and sale of these products, primarily on the biggest markets of these products - European Union and USA. Of course, organized effort of the entire society is necessary to regain former position on these markets. First of all, it would be necessary to adjusts standards of production, processing and sale to the standards prevailing on these markets. In doing this, the focus of attention should be on the quality of production and processing of medicinal and aromatic herbs, securing standard export quantities and stable sale on foreign markets, good marketing preparation for selling on the world market, with particular attention to the markets of major importers, etc.

This task of national importance not only in terms of generation of necessary foreign currency income, but also from the point of economic and overall security of the country can be achieved only by concerted effort within the single national strategy for the export of medicinal and aromatic plants, which should be scientifically and professionally worked out as soon as possible. On the other hand, involuntary suspension of export and import of medicinal and aromatic plants should be used to prepare for future sales efforts, above all on the single EU market, and to train the staff in organizations engaging in the production, purchase and sale of medicinal and aromatic plans and products thereof, who in regular conditions will be the main persons in charge of carrying out this responsible task in an economically efficient way.

Key words: FR Yugoslavia, medicinal plants, export, export strategy, European Union, NATO, economic aggression, economic blockade.

Strategy of Export of Medicinal Plants from FR Yugoslavia under Blockade

Economic blockade against FR Yugoslavia is still going on and is expressed in maintenance of the outer wall of sanctions imposed by the European Union and United Nations even after formal lifting of sanctions and signing of the Agreement on the Solution to the Kosovo Crisis. Maintenance of sanctions and blockade of FR Yugoslavia, particularly Serbia, is a gross economic aggression on our economy.

Economic blockade of FR Yugoslavia also caused difficulties in the production and export of Yugoslav medicinal plants and products thereof. Production of medicinal plants in this paper refers to wild-grown or cultivated medicinal and aromatic plants, while products made of medicinal plants include plant extracts, volatile oils, perfumery concentrates in fat or oil, distillates and solutions of volatile oils and perfumes.

The period in which blockade prevents Yugoslav export, above all to the EU and markets of developed Western countries, is also marked by hampered export of medicinal plans, products made of medicinal plants and bans on import of new processing technologies. That directly affects the economic potential and place that Yugoslavia would occupy in this branch in the world owing to its natural conditions and comparative advantages.

On the other hand, brutal NATO aggression on Yugoslavia caused enormous qualitative, quantitative and material damage assessed at over US$ 100 billion. In addition to material damage, use of prohibited chemical and other weapons resulted in environmental pollution with unforeseeable consequences. Symptoms of unknown illnesses appearing after the bombing and environmental pollution caused greater demand for medicinal herbs and preparations thereof for both treatment and prevention. Traditional treatment methods with chemical medicaments are no longer sufficient to assure patients that new illnesses will be cured. Alternative medicine and treatment with medicinal plants and products thereof is beginning to gain in importance.

In spite of economic blockade Yugoslavia has considerable absolute and relative comparative advantages according to Ricardo and search for adequate strategy of export and import of medicinal plants is an economic and social task of paramount importance. Making such a strategy is not only a duty of society (government bodies). Export and import companies, existing and new organizations for the production and processing of medicinal herbs, firms interested in the export and import of these products, as well as all initiators of the implementation of the strategy which should be intensely elaborated without any delay should be included in this effort. Winning of new markets and use of the existing ones will thus be made possible (1).

This international scientific symposium is an important step towards serious work on the formulation of a new strategy of export and import of medicinal plants and upgrading of export of medicinal plants and products thereof.

Export of medicinal plants and products thereof, as export of any other product, depends on the possibilities for the production of medicinal plants which are either collected freely in nature or grown on cultivated areas, on the satisfaction of raw material requirements of domestic pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and beverage industry and other related branches which use medicinal and aromatic plants to greater or lesser extent, on the quality of medicinal plants and products thereof, on the degree of pollution of certain areas which has considerably risen after the NATO aggression, on the possibilities for sale on foreign markets in regular business conditions, and particularly in the conditions of economic sanctions and blockade, on the efficiency of management and marketing, particularly international management and international marketing, on government support to the production and sale of medicinal plants and products thereof.

Both Yugoslavia's federal units - Serbia and Montenegro - abound in different medicinal and aromatic plants, as the result of geographic and climatic characteristics, the extent of forests, bare mountainous terrenes, pastures, unproductive and barren soil, ecologically pure oases and chemically unpolluted areas.

For the assessment of export potentials for medicinal and aromatic plants it is particularly important to assess the possibilities for their production and processing. Pharmacognostic maps have been elaborated for certain areas which help in the exploitation and purchase of medicinal and aromatic plants. Present forecasts of availability of medicinal and aromatic plants are largely based on data on sale and purchase, as well as on expert assessments by professionals dealing with this subject. However, these assessments cannot be quite accurate due to a range of reasons already mentioned in scientific and professional literature. The most important among them include: fluctuations in the production of certain species of medicinal plants from one year to another, inability to use the same quantity of available medicinal plants every year, high dependence on demand, variations in the volume of purchase depending on the buy up price and a series of other economic and non-economic factors. In recent period this list should be expanded to include the effect of unfair international sanctions of the UN Security Council, consequences of unlawful (according to international law) sanctions and economic blockade imposed by the European Union--the biggest and most promising market for Yugoslav medicinal plants; devastation of soil, highly probable chemical and bacteriological pollution and perhaps yet unknown other forms of pollution of numerous areas where the best quality medicinal herbs are grown due to the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia (24 March - 9 June 1999); uncleared explosive, radioactive and other unidentified destructive devices still lying on the ground and in riverbeds; attempts to break up Yugoslavia through external and internal encouragement of secession of Montenegro and attempts to partition Serbia through exclusion of Kosovo from the legal and administrative competence of the Republic of Serbia in spite of UN Security Council resolution 1244 and given international guarantees for territorial integrity of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

In such circumstances it is very difficult to give a realistic assessment of the possibilities for the production of medicinal and aromatic plants and available quantities for their further processing and export. This does not mean that the situation regarding the assessment of possibilities for the production and export of medicinal plants from Yugoslavia, and particularly from Serbia, is hopeless. The state and competent government bodies must provide full support to the activities in this area and encourage all competent experts, scientific, research and other organizations to engage in this highly important task for the nation. Its importance comes from economic and financial aspects, as well as from security aspects involved in the production, processing and export of medicinal plants, which unfortunately manifested in their full extent during the brutal NATO aggression on Yugoslavia and relentless and inhumane economic blockade of the country, particularly Serbia.

In the absence of new assessments and research, one may partly use the data from the period of relatively stable and quiet situation until the outbreak of crisis in former Yugoslavia in 1991 for the assessment of production and export potentials of medicinal plants.

According to the data on the sale and purchase in the territory of former Yugoslavia until its breakup, some 6.000 tons of medicinal and aromatic plants have been collected annually. Some 50 species of medicinal and aromatic plants have been purchased in Serbia. The most important among them (with annual sale and purchase of 50-300 tons) include: linden flower (Tiliae flos), elder flower (Sambici flos), overground part of absinthe in bloom (Absinthii herba), overground part of centaury in bloom (Centaurii herba), nettle root (Urticae radix), rose hip (Cinosbati fructus) and juniper berries (Juniperi fructus).

In regular circumstances, income from medicinal and aromatic plants was a significant item in Yugoslavia's foreign-currency income. Chamomile, mint, linden flower and juniper accounted for the greatest share of export. The major importers of these products were FR Germany, France, USA, Switzerland and Italy.

Germany was traditionally the biggest importer of medicinal herbs from Yugoslavia. It accounted for about 50% of the total Yugoslav export of medicinal plants. Germany is particularly important as the importer of dried rose hip, juniper, mint, linden flower and chamomile.

France absorbed about 15% of the Yugoslav export of medicinal plants. It regularly imported juniper, linden flower and various other herbs classified as "miscellaneous medicinal and aromatic plants".

Italy was from time to time a significant importer of medicinal plants from our country. In some years it imported more than 20% of the Yugoslav export of medicinal plants, particularly juniper berries.

Although Switzerland absorbed far less of the Yugoslav export of medicinal plants than the formerly mentioned countries, it nevertheless was among the major importers. The USA was also a significant importer of medicinal plants from former Yugoslavia. The main import product was sage leaf (70% of the total export of medicinal plants to the US, while this country accounted for 70% of the total export of this product).

Until 1991 these five countries accounted for nearly 90% of the total export of medicinal plants from ex-Yugoslavia. Among medicinal plants exported from Yugoslavia particularly important were sage, mint, chamomile, oak lichen, linden flower, mallow, gentian root, etc. The following table gives some indication of the possibilities of export of medicinal plants from Yugoslavia, taking into consideration that the figures must be lower now after the breakup of the country.

Export of products made of medicinal plants (plant extracts, volatile oils, mixtures of fragrant substances, perfumes and toilette waters, etc.) was modest. However, since most of the processing capacities were located in Croatia and Slovenia, even after normalization of economic cooperation of FR Yugoslavia with other countries, no significant export potentials should be anticipated. Until the breakup of former Yugoslavia, it exported annually on the average up to 2500 tons of plant extracts, up to 100 tons of perfumes and some 200 tons of perfume concentrates in fat and oil. The major importers of plant extracts from SFR Yugoslavia were Austria, FR Germany and Brazil. Volatile oils were mostly bought by the Netherlands, FR Germany and Great Britain. Due to fierce competition on the world market and monopoly of large international companies, perfumes were mainly imported to the markets of Eastern Europe.

The period after 1990 is the hardest time in the entire history of Serbia and Yugoslavia. After the outbreak of crisis in former SFR Yugoslavia, largely instigated from abroad, followed the period of its forceful breakup, accompanied with ethnic and religious conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbia, its leadership and the entire Serbian people were proclaimed by protagonists of the so-called new world order, primarily by the US, European Union and Vatican, to be the main and only culprits for all troubles that befell ex-Yugoslavia. Serbia and all Serbs have been subjected by the leading world media to unprecedented demonization and have been held responsible for all troubles in the world. The USA proclaimed Serbia its main enemy which allegedly endangers its security and its vital interests in the world. That was followed by unjustified and brutal international sanctions and economic blockade of FR Yugoslavia and its federal units--Serbia and Montenegro--for their alleged participation in armed conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Parallel with that, FR Yugoslavia was ousted from the United Nations and other universal international and regional organizations.

After the signing of the Dayton Agreement and expelling of more than 500,000 Serbs from their ancestral homesteads by the authorities in Croatia and Muslim-Croatian Federation to FR Yugoslavia, particularly to Serbia, it was anticipated that the international community would lift sanctions against FR Yugoslavia and contribute to its readmission into international financial and other organizations from which it had been excluded contrary to the norms of international law. Instead of that, pressures on Serbia and FR Yugoslavia increased owing to the fact that so-called outer wall of sanctions remained in place. The problem of Kosovo and Metohija had been fabricated, while pressures on our country continued, accompanied with the violation of the basic principles of international law. When that did not suffice to break down the principled resistance of FR Yugoslavia against the holders of world power and domination, open aggression on FR Yugoslavia was launched by the mightiest military organization in human history - NATO, causing enormous destruction of economic facilities, transport infrastructure and civilian facilities, in addition to casualties among innocent military personnel and civilian population. Unfortunately, even after the UN Security Council resolution 1244 had been passed, pressures and coercion aimed at FR Yugoslavia and Serbia continued. Protagonists of the new world order, led by the USA, resort to every available means, including external pressures, threats and instigation of internal turmoil, to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of FR Yugoslavia, and Serbia in particular.

In such a situation almost all legal channels of economic cooperation of FR Yugoslavia, above all Serbia, with other countries have been interrupted. Export and import have been reduced to token volume. That, of course, affected he export and import of medicinal and aromatic plants.

In spite of continuous economic aggression against Serbia and FR Yugoslavia, export of medicinal plants and preparations made of medicinal plants from FR Yugoslavia on the markets of aggressor countries did not stop, particularly export of preparations necessary for their pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. Table 2 presents data on export of medicinal plants and preparations thereof from FR Yugoslavia in 1998.

The above data indicate that the export of medicinal herbs and preparations thereof from FR Yugoslavia due to the effect of sanctions and economic blockade dropped drastically, equaling some 2400 tons in 1998, with foreign currency receipts totaling approximately US$ 3.3 million. The major importing countries for Yugoslav medicinal plants and preparations were Germany (US$ 1,242,000), Macedonia (US$ 575,000), Switzerland (US$ 382,000), Italy (US$ 373,000) and France (US$ 245,000). In addition to the mentioned countries, medicinal plants and preparations thereof were also exported from Yugoslavia to Canada (US$ 59,000), Slovenia (US$ 50,000), Czech Republic (US$ 33000) and Austria (US$ 20,000). Export of medicinal plants and preparations accounted for 1.5% of the Yugoslav export in 1998.

Serbia and FR Yugoslavia are faced with such a situation against their will. Having in view all the aforementioned, what could be done in given circumstances, imposed externally and largely beyond the country's control? Medicinal and aromatic plants are highly demanded on the world market and a very propulsive sector of international trade. Serbia and FR Yugoslavia have great possibilities for the development of production and sale of these products, primarily on the biggest markets of these products--European Union and USA. Of course, organized effort of the entire society is necessary to regain former position on these discriminating markets. First of all, it would be necessary to adjusts standards of production, processing and sale to the standards prevailing on these markets. In doing this, the focus of attention should be on the quality of production and processing of medicinal and aromatic herbs, as an increasingly significant factor of export competitiveness on any product, including medicinal and aromatic herbs, securing standard export quantities and stable sale on foreign markets, good marketing preparation for selling on the world market, with particular attention to the markets of major importers, etc.

This task of national importance not only in terms of generation of necessary foreign currency income, but also from the point of economic and overall security of the country can be achieved only by concerted effort within the single national strategy for the export of medicinal and aromatic plants, which should be scientifically and professionally worked out as soon as possible. On the other hand, involuntary suspension of export and import of medicinal and aromatic plants should be used to prepare for future sales efforts, above all on the single EU market, the most promising and almost only export market for these products originating from Serbia and FR Yugoslavia, and to train the staff in organizations engaging in the production, purchase and sale of medicinal and aromatic plans and products thereof, who in regular conditions will be the main persons in charge of carrying out this responsible task in an economically efficient way.

1. Peter F. Drucker, Menadžment za budućnost (Management for the Future), Privredni pregled, Belgrade, 1995.

2. FRY, Federal Statistical Office, Statistics of Foreign Trade of FR Yugoslavia, Year 1998, Part One, p. 83.

3. FRY, Federal Statistical Office, Foreign Trade Statistics for respective years.