The EU agri-food system in the recent crisis scenarios

The European Union agri-food system has faced major challenges in the last years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war. In a scenario where millions of people all over the world suffer from hunger, the uncertainty of food availability and commodity price surge have made it difficult to find and afford food on a large scale even in countries, which apparently are not exposed to those risks. Within the European Union (EU), this has depended upon the vulnerabilities and dependencies inherent in the agri-food system. In order to react and cope with emergency scenarios, the European Institution has adopted some temporary measures. The present paper verifies the level of the EU agri-food Self-Reliance system through the development of Self-sufficiency calculation and the Import Dependency Indices as well as the EU comparative advantage through the Gerard-Lafay Index and the relative comparative advantage proposed by Vollrath. Focusing on wheat and maize, these indices show a good level in the former case, but it may no longer be considered as such in the event of a crisis, and poor levels in the second case already at present time. Based on the achieved results, recommendable actions have been suggested in order to secure the EU food supply and to satisfy the EU demand even in case future adverse events might occur. In addition, further recommended actions to be taken by the European institutions, have been described.