„Everybody talks at various levels about the importance of the Lithuanian food industry, how we are able to export a variety of food products to many countries around the world, that the country's consumers are fully supplied with a wide range of top quality food products at affordable prices, that we have the opportunity to help Ukraine with food products. In order to keep this chain going, companies remain ready for investment, but state aid is very important. The food industry today is like a 'stepchild' or a 'football'. For the Ministry of Agriculture, we are not farmers, so we do not need to pay much attention, but for the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, we are part of the agricultural chain, so the sector is being ignored and unduly discriminated against in the absence of a clear administrator, even though there are certain resources and opportunities to help,“ said Ms Rusziauskienė.
She said that the Minister discussed the Strategic Plan for Lithuanian Agriculture and Rural Development 2023–2027, which is still being negotiated with the European Commission. „We were involved in its preparation and made comments, but now we see that only a very small part of them has been taken into account. What has been ignored will have a negative impact not only on the country's food industry but also on consumers. We have expressed all this to the Minister and, before that, to the Head of Government, but there have been no promises that anything will be changed in favour of the food industry. It seems that politicians talk a lot about strategies and the importance of the Lithuanian food industry in their public communications, but in reality and in the documents that are being drafted, this is not the case.“ – said the Director of the Lithuanian Association of Cereals and Processors.
At the meeting, food producers also drew the Minister's attention to the fact that only €50 million of the almost €4 billion of EU support for agriculture and rural development in Lithuania between 2023 and 2027 is earmarked for the processing of agricultural products.
„Lithuania needs, first and foremost, an agri-food industry strategy that clearly defines our priorities, which areas we are developing and how we compete with the industries supported by other countries. If the country is to achieve the breakthrough it claims, projects must respond to the challenges at hand. Otherwise, the investments will not pay off and will not create the expected technological and other changes that would ensure the sustainability of the food industry,“ says Andrius Pranckevičius, Director General of JSC „Kauno grūdai“.
He said that the assessment of the plan lacks a clear assessment of the return on investment, as is the case in other countries that clearly know where and how much each euro invested will pay off for the state. „Today, investing in the food industry provides countries with stability and reassurance that their citizens will not run out of food, especially in a turbulent period when companies need to find urgent solutions to the energy and technology needed to produce food that does not make food more expensive than drastically more expensive fuel and electricity. Seeing how other countries are doing it, we expect a similar approach from our government,“ said Mr Pranckevičius.
