The value of the domestic market is 70.6 billion dollars, with an expected growth of 50 percent, so it is estimated that itsvalue in 2016 will amount to 105 billion dollars, said todaythe Minister of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić.
At the conference on fast-moving consumer goods “FMCGsector by 2020”, Ljajić said that this market is without competition in the region, taking into account the size of the market, the initial price basis, which is low, which makesSerbia a potential market for foreign investment.
Trade is the fastest growing of all the economic sectors,especially in the last twenty years and it covers all market participants. From trade based on small stores, it transformed into the form of retail based on large chains stores,supermarkets and hypermarkets, said Ljajić.
The changes, he added, are evident in the sector ofmanufacturers supplying retail stores and consumers who are increasingly opting to buy goods in one place.
Ljajić said that these changes are inevitable, but that they have not affected this region on a large scale. He said that the participation of small businesses in the Serbian market in2003 was 72 percent, and 53 percent in 2011. In Romania, this ratio varied from 53 percent to percent, in Poland from 41 to 19 percent, and in Croatia from 41 to 28 percent.
When it comes to the concentration of the ten largestretailers, the participation was 18 percent in 2003 and 40percent in 2011.
Ljajić said that the economic crisis is slowing this processdown, but there is an evident drop of 8.3 percent in retail sales in Serbia.
There is a plan to work on legislation directed towards trade liberalization, because it is necessary to create a suitablebusiness environment for foreign investors and retail chains.
Today’s regional conference on fast-moving consumer goods”FMCG sector by 2020″, organized by the BIZLife mediacompany, brought together representatives of relevant statebodies and institutions in the region, representatives of theFMCG sector: manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
The term FMCG includes products that are sold quickly at relatively low prices, and consists mainly of food, beveragesand household chemicals. The profit from these products isrelatively small, with a small trade margin, but they are soldin large quantities.
