Mr Matic is just warming up. Soaking up the winter afternoon sun, he delivers an extended eulogy-cum-reverie about the properties of the earth in this part of the country.

For those not initiated in the finer points of what makes one kind of soil better than another, it boils down to this: The Vojvodina soil is rich, dark and anything will grow in it.

The Matic family farm, Brkin Salas, is typical of the traditional Serbian model. It covers eight hectares (19 acres) and the fields are cultivated without the use of chemical fertilisers.

Mr Matic, like other farmers, calls the produce "organic not by paper, but naturally," because although they are passionate about the integrity of their methods, they have never gone to the expense and trouble of applying for official organic certification.

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Mr Glamocic fears that the recent glut of cheap produce from the EU may just be a taste of things to come, as far as Serbia's farmers are concerned. For a country which has long ear-marked agriculture as a key potential growth sector, that is a worrying prospect.

But there is another, more optimistic school of thought. It holds that Serbia can take advantage of its "naturally organic" heritage and more recent ban on genetically-modified (GMO) crops.

The country is already a leader in the production of GMO-free soy - and could exploit its reputation to find markets in the EU where people are becoming more concerned about food-sourcing.

BELGRADE – Serbia will not allow cultivation of GMO seed on its plots, State Secretary in the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Danilo Golubovic said on Monday.

This is the official stand of the incumbent government and it will never change for as long as the current government structure remains in power, Golubovic told Tanjug.

He noted that potential changes in the Law on GMO could only lead towards additional strengthening of consumer safety, and underscored that this matter will not be realised behind the backs of the public.

In order to join the World Trade Organisation, Serbia must change a 2008 law which prohibits producing or trafficking genetically modified foods on its territory. With membership in the organisation, Serbia can still ban production of foods with genetically modified organisms, but cannot ban import of it. While some have accepted the argument in favour of changing the law, many remain against genetically enhanced foods.

On May 29, 2009 National Parliament of the Republic of Serbia adopted new Law Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) that fully prohibits the possibility of commercial growing of live modified organisms, or trade with live modified organism and products derived from genetically modified organisms. With the new Law on GMO, Serbian import of soybean meal (from roundup ready soybeans) for cattle feed is no longer possible.