Slovak milk and dairy products should be more widely represented on the shelves of large retail chains doing business in Slovakia, according to the Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber (SPPK). Its chairman, Milan Semančík, provided the TASR newswire with the results of a supply-chain survey it conducted at Tesco hypermarkets, at the Lidl discount chain and at CO-OP Jednota stores in Bratislava between March 10 and 17.
The survey showed that only 41.9 percent of total dairy products in the stores were domestically produced. According to Semančík, this could be one of the reasons why milk consumption is low in Slovakia, one of the lowest in the EU, in fact. “We are, with justification, asking for a higher representation of Slovak food products on store counters,” said Semančík.
SPPK found that the lowest share of Slovak dairy products was in Lidl stores – just 19.5 percent, with German and Czech products making up as much as 63.7 percent.
At the same time, domestic dairy products in Lidl stores in the Czech Republic made up 47.2 percent of the total, with Slovak products reaching only 3.5 percent. SPPK said the current practices of large retail chains are increasing Slovakia's negative trade balance for agricultural and food commodities, which rose by 15.3 percent last year. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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