Vulnerability of the Slovenian food system in connection with the war in Ukraine

Abstract

The Russian-Ukrainian war brings many economic and social challenges. Among other, it causes turmoil in the global energy and food markets, affects the functioning of global food systems and threatens food security. Ukraine and Russia are important global exporters of cereals, oilseeds, fossil fuels, and mineral fertilizers. The war disrupts the flow of these goods to the world market, which has greatly increased their prices and in some countries caused food shortages. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the war on food chains in Slovenia. For this purpose, the self-sufficiency in cereals, the agri-food trade between Slovenia and the two countries at war, and the prices of some agricultural commodities and inputs were analysed. The results show that the import of agri-food products from Ukraine and Russia to Slovenia is not significant, but the negative effects of the war are felt nevertheless. These are shown mainly through the rising prices of production inputs, as well as uncertain political and economic developments, which affect stakeholders along the entire food chains. Due to various factors, the world prices of agricultural inputs and commodities were already at a very high level even before the Russian invasion, and additional pressure on prices was caused by the outbreak of war. The European Union, which is Slovenia's main trading partner, covers domestic needs for most agricultural products through production, so there is no threat of food shortages. Nevertheless, food affordability remains a major concern due to high market prices and inflationary trends.

Development of financial performance of food retailers as an attribute behind the increase of food insecurity in selected Central and Eastern European Countries

“…a period of the COVID-19 disease massive outbreak (Hamulczuk & Skrzypczyk, 2021). Similarly, other authors stress the role of Russia's war against Ukraine in rising food prices and its negative consequences for stakeholders of the food value chain in a newer EU Member State, namely in Slovenia (Travnikar & Bele, 2022).…”

“…Investment Management and Financial Innovations, Volume 20, Issue 4, 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/imfi.20 (4).2023. 33 trade practices. In that context, respective financial performance indicators of food retailers can be considered as a harmonized proxy to observe mutual relationships among different stakeholders involved, including owners' structures and the inclusion of their short and long-term goals (e.g.…”

Analysis and perspectives of the impact of aggression against Ukraine on global grain supply

“…Jedna država ne može sama sebi priskrbiti svu potrebnu robu i usluge, pa su države primorane na adekvatnu razmjenu da bi namirile nedostatke onoga što ne mogu same proizvesti ili im je ekonomski isplativije uvesti iz druge države (Bjelić, Trošić Jelisavac i Petrović Popović, 2010). Travnikar (2022) u svom radu navodi da rusko-ukrajinski rat donosi mnoge ekonomske i socijalne izazove: "Između ostalog, izaziva previranja u svijetu tržišta energije i hrane, utječe na funkcioniranje globalnih prehrambenih sustava i prijeti sigurnosti hrane" (Travnikar, 2022: 1). Madžar (2022) navodi da je ukrajinski rat uvelike promijenio koncept i krajolik globalnog gospodarstva, što je dovelo do niza neželjenih posljedica: "Ova ratna kriza poremetila je globalna financijska tržišta, proizvodnju, izvoz i opskrbne lance, dovela do naglog rasta svjetskih cijena energenata i hrane, kao i do inflatornih pritisaka, izazvala dramatičnu humanitarnu katastrofu, ugrozila globalnu sigurnost hrane i povećala transportne troškove, ugrožavajući sam rast globalnog BDP-a" (Madžar, 2022: 12).…”

Countries’ vulnerability to food supply disruptions caused by the Russia–Ukraine war from a trade dependency perspective

“…Other analyses have shed light on the short-term impacts on food security by country and commodity category, mainly by examining countries’ import dependencies of selected food commodities from Russia and Ukraine and taking into account different factors (e.g., the Shannon Diversity Index, cereal production, stocks and prices, diet cost, prevalences of food insecurity and undernourishment). Such analyses have been conducted mostly for cereal products in some Middle Eastern countries 21 – 24 , Slovenia 25 , and a limited range of other countries 26 , 27 . However, without a detailed overall international comparison of war-related food insecurity, some vulnerable countries might be overlooked, or the extent of vulnerability in some countries might be overestimated.…”