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Takáč: The agricultural sector will use the assistance for food producers also from EU funds, and it will also verify the dual quality of food

by AI | 13.Dec 2024 | Europe in brief AI

Minister Takáč wants to help Slovak food producers through EU funds as well as domestic resources.

Minister of Agriculture of the Slovak Republic Richard Takáč wants to help food producers also through EU funds. Photo: TASR

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Bratislava – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MPRV) of the Slovak Republic will address investment assistance for food producers next year, which should also be approved by the Anti-Monopoly Office of the Slovak Republic. According to the Minister of Agriculture, Richard Takáč (Smer-SD), this assistance should be not only from EU sources but also from the state, reports TASR.

During Friday’s press conference in Bratislava Incheba on the occasion of the Christmas Days event, Takáč pointed out that this year the agricultural sector also approved another aid scheme to support the marketing of Slovak food producers.

“For the first time in 20 years, we have approved a state aid scheme for food producers,” said Takáč, stating that this money is intended for promotion, marketing, or, for example, innovative labels. Next year, the Ministry of Agriculture will allocate several million euros for it.

According to the minister, the food industry has been at the tail end of attention and interest for the last 20 years. In the past, Slovakia was more self-sufficient, as agriculture was better developed in the form of slaughterhouses, bakeries, or dairies. Currently, it is necessary to kick-start this entire area, also with the help of financial resources from European sources and from the state.

Takáč emphasized that another problem is that a large amount of food is grown in Slovakia, but then exported abroad.

At the end of the year, the Ministry of Agriculture also launched a dual-quality food control. “We find several foods that are of worse quality than in other EU countries, therefore, currently, intense inspections are underway, where we want to come up with some results by the end of January so that we can resolve this and ensure that citizens, when in the European Union, have the same food. It cannot happen that an Austrian citizen has something of better quality in the same packaging,” concluded Takáč.

Slovakia and the Czech Republic pushed for the European Commission to address the issue of dual-quality food in the EU in 2017. In April 2019, the European Parliament approved a modernization directive on unfair trading practices in the internal market, which strongly penalizes dual quality and applies not only to food products but also non-food products. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico politically revived this issue in the EU in 2024. (December 13)

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