Residents of Strpce: Instead of Serbian products, we are forced to buy lower-quality goods

Due to the ban on Serbian goods in Kosovo, there has been a shortage of Serbian-origin products in stores in the municipality of Strpce for months, leading to a significant decrease in sales. Residents tell Kosovo Online that they are in a difficult situation because they are forced to buy lower-quality goods that are available instead of the products they are accustomed to.

Shop owners in the municipality of Strpce have confirmed to our portal that since the ban on Serbian goods came into effect in June last year, sales of food products have decreased, with the impact becoming particularly noticeable after the Central Bank of Kosovo's regulation banning transactions in dinars. They note that the decision has especially affected pensioners, who are forced to buy only the most basic items.

One of the residents, Vujadin Staletovic, says that Serbian goods are increasingly scarce in stores, and people cannot buy what they are used to.

"Serbian goods are getting scarcer and scarcer from year to year because politics dictates that less Serbian goods are sent here, and Albanians from Kosovo, who mostly place their products in our area, benefit from this. The problem is that there is a shortage of goods, and people who are used to buying them have no choice in what to choose. What's available is what you have to buy, whether you like it or not," Staletovic said.

Jovanka Sinadinovic says that no one likes the goods currently in the markets, but they have to buy necessary items.

"There is nothing Serbian in the stores, it's all their goods, and no one likes it, but we have to buy it. It's a struggle for life, and the hardest part is that we can't withdraw pensions for the second month now," Sinadinovic said.

Velibor Djekic emphasizes that Serbs are in a difficult situation but will stay in their homeland despite everything.

"We are old and live in uncertainty; I pray to God that they come to their senses and stop doing this to us. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers lived and stayed here, and we will stay too, but under these conditions, shame on those who do this to us. There are some goods here and there in the stores, but it will be very difficult, and it is very expensive, unbearable," Djekic said.

Dragisa Krivcevic says they are forced to buy the goods available.

"We buy all Albanian goods, there are no Serbian goods. They don't let them in, we have to buy, what can we do? We buy everything in euros, not in dinars," Mitar Cvetkovic from Strpce, who spent his working life in Germany, said, describing the situation with the ban on Serbian goods as shameful.

"It's a great loss for the people, and it's a disgrace for politics. I've been in Germany for 52 years, and goods come and go from all sides there. This is truly shameful," Cvetkovic said.