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| Food producers need to be supported at least at the level of neighboring countries |
| Bratislava, 10.02.2026 |
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| The news of the closure of one of the last two sugar factories in Slovakia is a cry for the state to finally take action. It must support Slovak food companies at least at the level of neighboring countries. This was stated by Milan Lapšanský, Secretary General of the Slovak Milling Association (SSM).
“Food imports to Slovakia are constantly growing. This can be seen not only in the foreign trade balance, but also in individual sectors. The whole of Europe is in a demand crisis, which is reflected in the reduction of food and commodity sales, as well as in the management of companies and the optimization of multinational corporations. The closure of one of the last two sugar factories, which accounts for almost 50% of Slovakia's sugar consumption, is a finger raised at the state. If all the surrounding countries support their food processing capacities with hundreds of millions of euros and Slovakia with almost zero, Slovak companies on the common European market are massively losing competitiveness,” Lapšanský specified.
According to him, all analytical materials on the agri-food industry confirm that the state should primarily reduce the investment debt of processors, while constantly placing emphasis only on farmers. If the state does not address the huge debt of the food industry, not only citrus fruits but also basic foodstuffs will be imported to Slovakia.
He emphasized that the production of wheat flour in Slovakia has fallen by more than a tenth year-on-year, when it decreased by 12.3% year-on-year in comparison with the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 marketing years. Imports of flour to the Slovak market are already attacking the psychological threshold of 100,000 tons. According to him, the reason is primarily traders from foreign chains who prefer foreign products and do not behave socially responsibly. Slovak millers have modern production capacities to cover the entire Slovak demand for flour.
According to him, foreign chains are increasingly importing food from abroad and are applying disproportionately high markups to Slovak products, making them more expensive for people. "The state must immediately intervene by supporting domestic processing companies and applying existing laws to regulate the amount of markups of chains, otherwise the domestic food industry will collapse. Even now, it is becoming clear that foreign business owners pose a risk because they are looking exclusively at maximizing profits. This can be clearly seen in the behavior of retail chains, which behave differently at home in Germany and completely differently in Slovakia," said Lapšanský.
“All this is happening in light of the entry of one of the largest wheat producers in the world, Ukraine, into the common European market. It is essential that the state adopts a National Strategy for the Support of Slovak Food and defends the processing verticals that are still functional. In the first crisis situation, we may be surprised to find out that imported food will cost a lot, if there is anywhere to import it from at all,” he said.
“We fundamentally disagree with Ukraine joining the European Union without meeting all the criteria, only on the basis of a dubious political decision. We are against Ukrainian farmers and food producers being able to import agricultural commodities and food into the common European market without checking compliance with all the conditions that are mandatory for farmers and food producers in the EU,” Lapšanský added.odkaz na stránku |
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Address : Euro-Brew Ltd., Hlboká 22, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia
Tel. : +421 33 53 418 53, Fax : +421 33 53 418 52, E-mail : info@eurobrew.sk |
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