At the meeting of the Committee of the Serbian Parliament for Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management on September 20, 2024, the members expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that in the preparation of the Agriculture and Rural Development Strategy for the period from 2025-2032. included foreign experts. They believe that domestic experts should play a key role in this process.

The State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Jelena Blagojević, explained that a consortium of experts from Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia were engaged as part of the World Bank project, who have already presented planned activities related to the development of the strategy.

The President of the Committee for Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Marijan Risticevic from the Serbian Progressive Party, pointed out that the contract on the drafting of the Strategy, concluded during the time of Minister Jelena Tanasković, was unacceptable to him. "The strategy of Serbian agriculture will be done by a company from Slovenia and a company from Sarajevo," said Risticevic and added that of the 24 experts working on the strategy, 20 of them are not from Serbia, which in his opinion can affect the appropriateness of the strategy to domestic needs.

Risticevic emphasized that the majority of experts should be from Serbia, including leading entrepreneurs from the food industry, animal husbandry, and processing industry, as well as reputable farmers, so that the strategy would be as applicable as possible in practice. He also pointed out that the Board did not receive the Draft Strategy Framework or a copy of the contract on its development, despite having requested these documents.

MP of the Freedom and Justice Party, Dušan Nikezić, condemned the hiring of foreign experts as "scandalous" and pointed out that when foreigners finance the development of a strategy, it is not surprising that they also hire their own people for that project. He also wondered why Serbia does not have enough funds to finance the creation of its own agricultural development strategy, but has to borrow for it.