2023-11-17 10:02:00
Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) calculated this in his “Report on National Food Supply Security”. Accordingly, due to inflation, consumers are increasingly buying from discounters and supermarkets instead of from direct sellers or specialist retailers.
“We see that sales of quality food are falling and the jungle of private labels is growing,” said the minister. When it comes to meat consumption, a “certain reluctance” can be observed when purchasing higher-priced products.
The Agriculture Minister emphasized that the food supply in Austria is secure. “Food production and food trade in Austria functions without disruption. However, the high energy costs, the associated increases in production and input costs and, above all, inflation continue to have an impact along the entire value chain,” explained Totschnig.
Regarding this year’s harvest, he said that grain production (excluding corn) is estimated at around three million tons. It is therefore above the previous year’s level due to higher yields and larger cultivated area. “However, due to Russian price dumping, an oversupply caused by good harvests or less demand and indirect price pressure from the grain trade through Ukrainian grain imports into the EU, grain prices have fallen sharply in 2023,” Totschnig limited. “The forecast total corn production in 2023 will exceed the previous year at 5.36 million tons,” said the Agriculture Minister.
A look at the level of self-sufficiency shows that Austria’s agricultural economy sometimes produces significantly more than is consumed in this country. The self-sufficiency rate for drinking milk is 178 percent, for beef and veal it is 147 percent and for pork it is 108 percent. When it comes to wine, the supply level is one hundred percent. More is consumed than produced for potatoes (90 percent) and grain (87 percent). The number of cereals in particular fluctuates every year, depending largely on the weather, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Grain also includes feed grain.
This year’s potato harvest was small compared to the long-term average this year. Difficult weather conditions, damage caused by wireworm and reduced cultivated areas due to low producer prices in recent years are the main reasons for the low harvest volumes, according to the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture recently.
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