BRATISLAVA, July 29, (WEBNOVINY) – The Minister of Farming and Rural Development Zsolt Simon estimates that farming in Slovakia could create 14,800 new jobs. The minister opines that new people could be employed in the sector if the growing area with crops that can be grown here, but are currently imported, is expanded. Therefore, the ministry is to focus in the next three years on creation of new jobs in rural areas in regions with the highest unemployment rate and with conditions suitable for growing such crops, Simon announced at a news conference on Friday.
Minister Simon believes that if concrete measures are taken it would be realistic to reduce the trade balance deficit by EUR 504 million. He named support to Slovak products, increasing their share on the local market, introducing a system of sale to the end user, as well as focusing on active farmers and interconnecting support mechanisms between the farm department and the Labor Ministry. Last year, Slovakia’s trade balance was negative EUR 996 million.
„Years have shown that the statement – what we don’t have, we’ll import – also has its dark side: in the form of the Slovak unemployed, because we have been importing what we could produce at home,” Simon commented. According to an analysis by the Research Institute of Farming and Food Production Economy, extension of potato fields by 15,000 hectares could create one thousand jobs. In order to satisfy the current vegetable consumption, the sown area should be larger by 9,230 hectares, which would increase the number of jobs by 4,000 and by 3,500 if the area of grown fruits was increased by 4,800 hectares. „These goods are demanded and consumed on a yearly basis on the Slovak market, but we import them from abroad. This will be the employment policy that the Agriculture Ministry together with other ministries will pursue in the next period,” Simon concluded.
SITA