More than 5,500 truckloads of bread and pastries are brought to Slovakia by retail chains from Belgium, Germany and Poland. Instead of homemade pastries, Slovak consumers consume baguettes or sweet pastries that have traveled “half of Europe”. Domestic production capacities of bakeries could easily cover the demand of chains in Slovakia. This was stated by Milan Lapšanský, chairman of the board of the Slovak Union of Bakers, Confectioners and Pasta Makers (SZPCC).
“Since baked goods are not sold directly on chain counters with the country of origin marked, Slovak consumers often have no idea that they are consuming products from Belgium, Germany or Poland. At the same time, Slovak bakeries could easily manage the imported volume, representing over 55,000 tons of products, to produce and deliver to Slovak consumers.” explained Lapšanský.
Retail chains know about the sufficient capacity of bakeries in Slovakia. Despite this, except for exceptions, in Slovakia they refuse to buy these products from Slovak producers and repeatedly conclude contracts with Belgian, German or Polish bakeries.
“Members of the Slovak Association of Bakers, Confectioners and Pasta Makers supply high-quality products to chains in other countries, which have a turnover greater than all Slovak chains combined, which means they can cover most of the demand of chains operating in Slovakia. At the same time, the efficiency of production allows our bakers to sell them at competitive and, considering the logistics costs, even more favorable prices from Western Europe. By rejecting Slovak production, the chains inexplicably cause not only an increase in the foreign food trade balance, but also produce huge amounts of CO2 emissions completely unnecessarily. They somehow forget to mention it in their green reports,” underlined Lapšanský.
SZPCC will therefore communicate this topic with state representatives with the aim of clearly marking the origin of the products on the counters. It is necessary for the consumer to be informed directly in the stores in which country the bakery product was made and how many thousands of kilometers it has traveled.
The Slovak Union of Bakers, Confectioners and Pasta Makers unites producers from all over Slovakia. It has more than 520 members from SZČO to large bakeries in all regions of Slovakia. Union members employ more than 12,200 workers.
