Slovakia lacking food self-sufficiency

Slovakia is far from being a self-sufficient country in terms of food, as the volume of food exports is one third lower than that of imports, stated Slovak Farming Cooperative analyst Eva Sadovská. Over the past 20 years, Slovakia has not once been food self-sufficient. Over this period, food exports did not even once exceed imports, so the reported trade balance each year was negative. In 2016, this deficit was 1.25 billion euros, while imports of agricultural and food products amounted to 4 billion euros in the examined year, exports reached a total of 2.75 billion euros. Conversely, Slovakia is a strong exporter of cereals, legumes and oil seeds, all worth €528 million in 2016, representing around one fifth of overall exports (€2.75 billion) and exceeding the imports of these commodities three times over.