Economic and financial section > Agricultural crisis > Volume 1

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The wheat crop in 1930 was 15.44 Per cent less> and the maize crop 16.47 Per cent less
than in 1929. There was reason to hope that the decrease in the crops of these two
cereals in 1930 would help to improve prices or at any rate to maintain them on the 1929
level. These expectations have not been fulfilled and the prices of maize and wheat have
declined considerably in comparison with 1929. This proves that prices are but little
affected by the crop obtained in one State but follow international prices, which depend
on world production.
As a result of their large production, the exporting countries hastened to dispose of
their cereals and competition served to depress prices still further.
The depression has especially affected cereals, which are grown in Yugoslavia on about
5,000,000 hectares—i.e., 83 per cent of the arable land, or about 45 per cent of the cultivated
area of the country.1
Maize and wheat rank first in the cultivation of cereals; in round figures, the surface
under wheat amounts to 1,900,000 hectares and that under maize to 2,250,000 hectares.
Under these circumstances, and in view of the fact that grain exports in normal
years represent about one-third, in terms of value, of the total exports, the drop in prices
has a considerable effect on the general situation of the country.
Not only have the prices of cereals declined heavily in 1930 as compared with 1929,
but the drop in prices has affected almost all branches of agricultural production, as shown
by the index numbers of wholesale prices prepared by the Department for Economic
Studies of the National Bank of Yugoslavia.
Price Indices of Vegetable and Animal Products in i<)2g and 1930.
(Basis 1926 = 100.)
Vegetable products
1929
1930
Animal products
1929
1930
January
February
March
April
May
Tune
July
August
September
October
November
December
Index number for the
year
137-50
I33-IO
137.60
135-70
127.60
117.50
109.80
106.30
102.90
106.60
106.00
102.30
104.50
100.70
95-90
95-30
94.00
91.50
96.70
93-9°
78.00
77-30
71.40
72.50
102.50
109.00
109.00
110.20
no.00
I09-50
113-30
113.70
107.20
106.60
99.20
95.80
118.60
89.30
107.20
98.20
97.10
102.50
99.20
99.90
93-70
97.70
96.70
95.60
93-30
95.10
86.40
96.30
1 The total arable land in Yugoslavia amounts roughly to 6,000,000 hectares. The total cultivated area
amounts roughly to 11,000,000 hectares.