Slovakias Self-sufficiency in Selected Food Products

Food production is a basic branch of the processing industry not only in the Slovak Republic, but also in  the entire European Union. Food production has a priority  role  in ensuring  the nutrition of  the population.  The  agrarian  sector  is,  on  the  one  hand,  an  important  integral  part  of  the  national economy and, on the other hand, maintains its own specific position. Food self‐sufficiency in the Slovak Republic has been declining for a long time, the decline accelerated after the country joined the EU. The food industry is closely related to agriculture and performs important functions such as ensuring the receipt, storage and processing of agricultural products, the production of food products and the supply of food to the population. The goal of this contribution was the evaluation of production and food  self‐sufficiency  in  selected  food  products  of  animal  origin.  The  following  commodities were analysed: pork, beef and veal, poultry, table egg production and raw cow's milk production. All analysed indicators were characterized in the period from 2019 to 2021. In production self‐sufficiency, Slovakia achieves relatively good results in the production of beef, where the average value for the period 2019 to 2021 is 86.45%, in the production of table eggs in the shell 86.10% and in cow's milk 78.91%. The critical situation is in the production of pork, where it is covered only 46.44% of  consumption on average. Compared  to other  small open  economies,  the Slovak Republic has a low level of food self‐sufficiency, which continues to decrease relatively quickly. During the monitored period, the average food self‐sufficiency at the level of 60‐70% was recorded in the production of poultry meat, and higher self‐sufficiency is achieved in the production of table eggs. In the production of pork, beef and milk, food self‐sufficiency oscillates around 30%, which is mainly caused by problems in the processing industry and not satisfactory subsidy policy.