The Slovak cabinet has approved measures to address a crisis situation in the market for cereal crops which has arisen as a result of this year’s bumper harvest.
The approved proposal, which was submitted by the Agriculture Ministry, suggests withdrawing around 1.2 million tons of wheat, barley and maize from the Slovak market, the SITA newswire wrote. "We are thinking about an intervention, to purchase maize and cereal crops, of more than Sk1 billion (€33.19 million), which will certainly be a significant step toward maintaining price stability. Otherwise Slovak farmers could be in serious trouble," said Prime Minister Robert Fico at a press conference following a cabinet session on October 29.
He suggests earmarking funds from the Slovak Land Fund (SPF) for this purpose. The finance and agriculture ministers, as well as the SPF’s director general, agreed with his proposal. "You can see that [the situation] is a nonsense: last year prices rocketed, since the harvest was poor. Now there is overproduction of grain and maize and there is a big problem with that," Fico added. Slovak farmers report a surplus of 800,000 tons of wheat, 300,000 tons of maize and 100,000 tons of barley. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
