The Agriculture Chamber wants a blueprint for rural development

The Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber (SPPK) submitted to new Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Gabriela Matečná (Slovak National Party) a list of five priorities to be included in the new Government Manifesto. "Our priority is to develop and approve a blueprint for rural development in Slovakia for 2016-2020, part of which should be the consumption of domestic agricultural products, improvement of Slovakia's food security and seeing rural unemployment drop", said the chamber's director Milan Semančík at a press conference on Tuesday. It would also like to strengthen the position of Slovak farmers on the common European market through reforming the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2014-2020. Slovakia should also support competitiveness and effectiveness of the food industry via provision of investments in the renewal and innovation of pre-existing production and processing capacities. The last priority concerns the promotion of the sale of Slovak food products on the Slovak and EU markets as well as on markets of third countries.