Slovenia: {Slovenija}

Slovenia is determined to address the agrifood challenges and is one of EIT Food’s RIS countries

The agrifood sector, a solid pillar of the Slovenian economy

Net sales revenue of food enterprises in Slovenia is 2.2 billion EUR and net sales revenue in foreign markets is 599 million EUR.The greatest share (44 %) of all food processing enterprises is constituted by enterprses that produce bread, fresh pastry goods and cakes, followed by enterprises that produce meat products and meat (except poultry) respectively.

Although agriculture plays a significant role in Slovenia’s economy, due to the decreasing share of land used for agriculture, there is expected gradual marginalisation of the sector. The chance can be seen in the increasing number of organic agricultural holdings, but the competitiveness of Slovenian farms ­­– as compared to other EU countries – remains low because of their small size.

Slovenian R&D sector receives considerable investments, the country spends over 2.0% of its GDP on scientific research, which exceeds average scientific budgets in Europe.

Room for Improvement

Slovenia’s agrifood sector needs fundamental support and incentives for farmers to remain in the market through restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems related to agriculture. Future development of the sector depends on the production of high-quality products with higher value added and subsequently the access to modern technology, land, financial assets, knowledge and innovation.

EIT Food Hub in Slovenia: Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana

The fundamental mission of the Biotechnical Faculty is to provide university level, advanced professional, and postgraduate education, as well as to carry out scientific research and technical and consulting work concerning the sciences of living nature (biology, microbiology) as well as agriculture, forestry and fisheries (forestry, animal husbandry, agronomy) and the related production technologies (wood technology, food technology, biotechnology). The common denominator of all academic and scientific disciplines at the Biotechnical Faculty is natural resources (soil, physical space, flora, fauna, and water).

The main goal of the educational programme is to educate - based on the Faculty's own research and other achievements - highly skilled professionals in the management of natural resources and the thereby related production technologies. Furthermore, the Faculty's scientific and research work combines basic, applied and developmental research work, enabling the rapid transfer of research results into practice.