The U.S. Embassy, through its Foreign Agricultural Service, will engage John Dunmore, an expert from the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in building the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture’s capacity to analyze agricultural commodities in Serbia. The training will take place in the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture from March 22-26.

This work is a continuation of a project carried out by USDA’s Economic Research Service to develop the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture’s capacity to carry out commodity market analysis. With USDA’s assistance, the Ministry’s Department of Primary Production and Processing has developed supply and use balances for grains, oilseeds, livestock, fruits and vegetables that are important to Serbia’s economy. This information provides a basis on which to forecast market developments and also to analyze alternative outcomes of the Ministry’s WTO and SAA negotiations.

This time Dunmore will continue his efforts to build a Baseline Model – software able to provide predictions for certain economic and production indicators based on historical data. He will also work with Ministry staff to begin planning for a 2nd Annual Serbian Agricultural Outlook Conference to be held in mid June, 2010.

Source; Embassy of the United States