President of the Slovenian Association for integrated production of vegetables Stanko Volk has explained that the goal of its third project is to raise awareness about the high quality of Slovenian vegetables among home customers. The projects have already brought positive results, points out Volk.

According to the president, Slovenian food retailers are becoming increasingly aware how important the supply of locally grown vegetables is. Slovenian growers, on the other hand, have also been trying for years to increase the demand from schools, kindergartens, hospitals and similar institutions that are bound to public tenders, but several bureaucratic obstacles remain. However, Volk notes that in the past two or three years the government has been striving to introduce regulations that would bring more local food to the plates of the above-mentioned public institutions.

More than 60 per cent of Slovenian farms have already obtained a certificate of integrated production, which proves their commitment to growing vegetables that are eco-friendly and healthy for the consumer. “Despite this the import has increased substantially. In 2000 the percentage of self-sufficiency still stood at 50%, but in the past year it has dropped from 37% to 33%. Contrarily to self-sufficiency, the consumption of vegetables has been on the increase, since on average in 2013 every Slovenian consumed 98 kilograms of vegetables, out of which 73 kilograms were fresh,” explains expert on vegetable production Miša Pušenjak, adding that Slovenia is still below the European average which amounts to 102 kilograms of vegetables consumed per person.

A. Č.; translated by K. Z.