I. Hofmann: We will work to have agriculture recognised as part of national security

Agriculture should be recognised as a strategically important sector for national security, according to Minister Ignas Hofmannas, who is responsible for this area. This would allow better funding for certain agricultural programmes, such as the food reserve system, he said.

„Agriculture is just as important as the defence sector, for example, because food is the basis for meeting human physiological needs. We think it is part of the same defence and from a national security perspective it is very important," Hofman told LRT Radio on Thursday.There should be more emphasis on agriculture and we must have our own food security and our own food chain, he stressed.

The Minister believes that Lithuania is capable of providing basic foodstuffs, but lack of funding makes this difficult. Today, he said, the country produces only about 50 per cent of the pork consumed in the country, even though Lithuania has historically been an exporter of this product.
As far as basic foodstuffs are concerned, we certainly have the potential to be self-sufficient. Unfortunately, today, we do not produce some of the products that we could produce locally, and that is not good," he explained.

According to Mr Hoffman, the importance of agriculture for national security would be particularly felt if food supply chains were disrupted. In such a situation, a food reserve system would play a major role, but the Minister said that the focus on this area is insufficient today. „The reserve is part of security and the Ministry of Agriculture is entrusted with the task of building the reserve. In fact, the finances available now do not allow it to be formed properly," he noted. „This is where the need for the point we have been talking about, that of recognising agriculture as a strategic branch, comes in. This would mean that priority would be given to it," added Mr Hofman.

ELTA has already reported that Gintautas Palucas' Government Programme envisages giving more strategic importance to agriculture, aiming to strengthen its competitiveness, ensure a more sustainable food production process, and increase the availability of fresh produce to the Lithuanian population. „We will recognise agriculture as a strategically important sector for national security through legislation“, – the Government Programme states.

On plans to set up a Food Council: it would be similar to the Tripartite Council

Talking about the plans to establish a Food Council in the Government Programme, the Minister of Agriculture says that the new body could be the equivalent of the Tripartite Council, which brings together representatives of employers, trade unions and institutions. „There should be a tripartite or quadripartite council, like on wages, something like that, a model that, with the intervention of the state, should monitor and control the share of profits so that it is not unreasonably high (...) The profits of any (link) – whether processing, or traders“, – noted I. Hofmanas.

One example of regulation, he said, could be a separate law to control prices in the milk production and supply chain. This vision, the Minister said, will be concretely reflected in the Government's action plan. However, Mr Hofman said he could not give a specific answer on which part of the profit share of sellers or processors would be considered "too high".

„It is a matter of debate, I would not like to go into such details. (...) The products are different and the situations are different, and perhaps an analysis will show that there is no need for a Quadripartite or Tripartite Council“, &ldash; added the Minister. „After a proper assessment, analysis and comparison with the experience of other countries, conclusions could be drawn“,  – said Mr. Hofmanas.