Slovakia's food self-sufficiency increases

Slovakia's food self-sufficiency increased from 45 percent in 2012 to 51 percent in 2015, announced spokesman of Slovak Ministry of Agriculture Peter Hajnala on Wednesday.

"The increase in self-sufficiency was due to improvements of production values in agriculture and the food industry. The production value boost was largely driven by optimization of production costs and by growth in added value. The latter resulted into an employment growth in agriculture - recording a rise for two consecutive years for the first time since 1989," stressed Hajnala.

Slovakia's self-sufficiency in the production of meat, poultry, conserved products, fruit, vegetables and wine reaches 50-60 percent. It's higher in the production of sugar, bakery goods and beer - reaching almost 80 percent.

Meanwhile, Slovakia is fully self-sufficient in the production of milk, flour, non-alcoholic beverages and spirits. On the other hand, it's almost completely lacking self-sufficiency in the production of fats and oils.

"If foreign trade enters the analysis, then this balance is shifted against Slovak food, with around one half of foodstuffs consumed in Slovakia being imported. Our ambitions include boosting overall self-sufficiency to 80 percent by 2020, while increasing the consumption of domestic food from domestic production to the same level," added Hajnala. Endit