BRATISLAVA, November 29, (WEBNOVINY) — Farmers in Slovakia do not nourish hopes that the situation after critical last year, when the agricultural sector posted a loss of EUR 103.5 million might improve this year. 2009 and 2010 are the worst years for farmers since Slovakia’s entry in the European Union, said spokesman for Slovak Agricultural and Food Chamber (SPPK) Stanislav Nemec on Monday. He specified that last year’s 20-percent slump in prices of farming commodities was aggravated by this year’s floods and unfavorable weather causing damages worth several ten million euros. Farmers remain pessimistic in their prognoses for next year. SPPK’s calculations indicate that the government’s proposed package aimed at consolidation of public finances will increase farmers’ costs by about EUR 70 million.
After difficult year 2009, another burdensome year when the agricultural sector was hit by floods followed, said Nemec. He informed that the amount of corn crop, which ranks among Slovakia’s most important commodities, fell one third in yearly terms. Not even growing commodity prices neutralized the negative development, stressed Nemec. Data of the Statistics Office, according to which prices of farming products went up 10.9 percent y/y on average since the beginning of the year, also confirm his words. Prices of vegetal products swelled 25.4 percent and prices of animal products grew 0.1 percent.
Delay in compensations for this year’s floods also complicates life of farmers. Although the Agricultural Paying Agency (PPA) has already announced that the damages would be refunded by the end of this year, farmers have not received a cent yet, said Nemec. “In addition to damages caused by floods, there are damages caused by water that ran over brims of reservoirs on the agricultural land, for which the Ministry of Environment has not paid anything yet and it has not even informed when the affected farmers can expects compensations for these damages,” concluded Nemec.
SITA
