Exploring the legal framework of genetically modified organisms in the Western Balkans

In the Western Balkans, comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo*3, there exists a diversity of perspectives on the matter of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their associated politics. Given the growing significance of this issue and the ongoing discourse within the EU regarding new genomic techniques (NGTs), the primary objective of this paper is to assess the prevailing regulatory landscape within the region. The findings underscore the vital need for a harmonized regulatory framework concerning NGTs among countries in the same geographical vicinity. The absence of such coherence could potentially cast doubt on the viability of the Open Balkan initiative. This article thus serves as a foundational resource for governments, scholars, and policymakers engaged in the formulation of GMO-related policies, fostering a comprehensive understanding of the regional dynamics and facilitating informed decision-making

Taxes and the tax system in agriculture of the Byzantine Empire from the III to the IX century

The topic of the paper is tax and the tax system of the Byzantine Empire. The tax system analysed in this paper was created and applied from the 3rd to the 9th century. In this research, the author tried to point out the changes that took place in the property relations in the agriculture of the Empire, which in many ways affected the organization and method of tax collection. The paper provides an analysis from which it can be noted that the organization of tax collection followed the changes that took place in Byzantine society. Agricultural production in the first centuries was based on the relationship between the colonists and the landowners. That relationship began to change from the beginning of the 7th century, when an increasing number of free peasants began to appear in agricultural production. The Roman and then the Byzantine system of tax collection was based on the registration of the land in the cadastre. Every land owner had to be registered in the cadastre, and thus was obliged to pay taxes. The financial administration of the Empire gave estimates every year of how much tax should be collected. The tax system in these times is going through changes in the way it is collected. The old relationship in which head tax and land tax are collected is abandoned and a system of special assessments, household tax and land tax is introduced. The changes that occurred in the method of tax collection influenced the further development of relations in Byzantine agriculture. Throughout this period, taxes were collected in money, mostly gold

Impact of digital marketing on the performance of companies in the agricultural sector of Serbia

This paper explores the impact of digital marketing on the business operations of companies in the agricultural sector of Serbia. Accordingly, the research objective is to determine critical success factors of digital marketing channels in companies within this sector. Given the stated research objective, the following general hypothesis has been formulated: digital marketing channels such as effective presence on social media, website quality, online sales and search engine optimization have a significant positive impact on the business performance of companies in the agricultural sector in Serbia. Successful implementation of these types of digital marketing channels by companies is expected to lead to increased visibility, engagement of the target audience, and improved sales. Consequently, the results of empirical research provide more insightful perspectives on the state of this field, identifying specific aspects of digital marketing that significantly contribute to the business performance of companies in the agricultural sector of Serbia

The Products Obtained by Milk Processing with a Special Reference to Obtaining Whey in the Production of Cheese

For the economy of every country, milk represents one of the strategic products, therefore the aspiration is to ensure sufficient quantities to meet the needs of the population with the development of primary milk production. Analyzes have established that of the total milk produced in Serbia, about 1.5 billion liters of milk per year, almost half (50%) is purchased by the processing industry, which is focused on the production of products that do not require a lot of time and for which the technological processes are not complex and long-lasting. These products are the most used in the market, even though they have a short shelf life. The paper will show that in the process of cheese production, whey is created as a side product, which is one of the insufficiently used side products of the dairy industry. Also, the production of cow’s milk as well as the products obtained in dairies for realization on the market for the period from 2015 to 2021 will be processed, with special reference to the use of whey in the food industry, where it is most often used as concentrated or whey powder

Investment in creating the value added in livestock production

Livestock production is one of the most important sectors that generally increases overall profitability gained in agriculture. It could be a good alternative to farms that have available large areas under the crop production. Special segment of livestock growing is milk production and further gaining of value added through the milk processing. Locally, within the dairy production traditionally appears full-fat cow cheese. In performed research was tested the economic justification of initial investment in cow milk production and later milk processing into the full-fat cheese that will enable the sustainability and increase in gained profits at observed farm located in northern part of Montenegro. Investment analysis involves appliance of usual set of indicators, mainly NPV, IRR and DPBP. Gained results have been showed that the investment decision could be considered as fully justified for the farmer

Determinants of Hotel Business Success in Rural Areas of the Western Balkan Countries

This paper examines the impact of ten microeconomic factors on hotel business success. This research encompassed a sample of 115 small, family-operated hotels situated in rural regions of the Western Balkan countries (WBC). This research was based on the assumption that factors such as the size of the hotel, age, solvency, liquidity, labour productivity, capital productivity, CSR, and reduction of CO2 emissions exhibit a positive influence on business success, whereas leverage, indebtedness, and energy consumption have a negative effect on the business success of hotels. The findings revealed that business success from the previous period, size, liquidity, and CSR exhibit a positive influence on business success, whereas leverage, capital productivity, and indebtedness demonstrate a negative effect. Conversely, the age of the hotel and labour productivity were not found to significantly influence business success, as did energy consumption. In the context of sustainable development, a positive CSR impact means that tourists value this behaviour of the hotel, while a lack of a statistically significant impact of energy consumption implies either that hotels do not implement efficient measures of energy efficiency or that energy efficiency may not be a crucial factor in attracting guests or influencing their loyalty. The findings also show that labour productivity expressed conventionally does not have a statistically significant impact on hotel business success. However, when expressed in a way that respects the concept of sustainable development and CSR, workforce productivity is a significant factor in hotel business success. Due to the problem of multicollinearity, the influence of CO2 emissions was not examined. The findings suggest the following two groups of key measures: 1. Policymakers must work on ensuring more favourable conditions under which hotels can borrow, as well as on ensuring adequate infrastructure; 2. They must work on improving the strategy for maintaining liquidity to avoid the high costs of short-term loans and increasing size in order to further utilise economies of scale. These two microeconomic factors have the greatest impact on the business success of hotels

Dynamic interdependence between ethanol and biofuel-related agricultural commodities – cDCC-FIAPARCH approach

Biofuel production is one of the key topics in today's world, which inevitably raises the question of the relationship between ethanol and agricultural commodities. The nexus between corn and ethanol is well known in the literature, but the link involving other biofuel feedstocks is relatively poorly explored. Therefore, this paper research the dynamic nexus between ethanol and five agricultural commodities using the cDCC-FIAPARCH model, while two additional analyses complement the main results. Dynamic conditional correlation between ethanol and corn is the highest and reaches an average of 50%, while wheat and soybean follow with 31%. A rolling regression analysis reveals the relationship between conditional volatilities and conditional correlations, where the assets with lower conditional volatility have a more significant impact on conditional correlation. The findings may have several practical implications for agents working with ethanol and agricultural commodities, such as food security assessment, efficiency of supply chains and portfolio construction

Economic Efficiency of Investments in the Growing of Medicinal Herbs and Spices

Medicinal herbs are important for human nutrition and industrial processing. The main goal of research is assessment of economic effectiveness of investments in seedlings production and establishment of plantation under mentioned crops. Analysis involves data from the coal mine complex in Pljevlja (Montenegro), while implies dynamic methods such are Net Present Value, (Modified) Internal Rate of Return, and Payback Period. Although research results favored the seedlings production, determined crossover rate indicates some opposite conclusions. Inconsistency in conclusions according to Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return occurs only for certain range of discount rate. Research also implies sensitive analysis of crossover rate according to changes in volume of invested assets. So, management could make appropriate decisions towards the investments in medicinal plants production. Derived results suppose that investment in production of medicinal herbs seedlings is economically more effective for all discount rates above the crossover rate (6.08%)

Challenges in Protecting Green Energy Entrepreneurs in Wheat Industry Against Financial Risk: The Portfolio Optimization Approach

This chapter tries to hedge extreme financial risk of entrepreneurs who work with wheat by combining wheat with four stock indices of developed and emerging European markets in a portfolio. Extreme risk of the portfolios is measured by the parametric and historical value-at-risk (VaR) metrics. Portfolios that target maximum return-to-VaR ratio are also constructed because different market participants prefer different goals. Preliminary equicorrelation results indicate that integration between wheat and emerging markets is lower (0.218) vis-á-vis the combination of wheat and developed markets (0.307), which gives preliminary advantage to emerging markets in diversification efforts. The results show that portfolios with emerging stock indices have significantly lower parametric (–0.816) and historical (–0.831) VaR than portfolios with developed indices, –1.080 and –1.295, respectively. As for optimal portfolios, the portfolios with developed indices have a slight upper hand. This chapter shows that parametric VaR is not a good measure of extreme risk, because it neglects the third and fourth moments