Development and level of consumption of chosen foods in Slovakia and Austria

Analysis of food supply and demand is a valuable part of everyday decision making of consumers, primary producers, food producers and retail chains. The basic indicators that allow evaluating the level and development of living standards in the country are disposable cash income, consumption expenditures on food, housing, clothing, rent, energy and medical care. The paper points at the development of expenditures for food and consumption of chosen foods in Slovakia and compares it with Austria. Expenditures for food and non-alcoholic beverages in Slovakia were 23.1% and exceed food and consumer spending in Austria by 19.1%. On the other hand the transportation expenditures in Slovakia were by 50% lower in comparison with Austria. Structure of the other obligatory expenditures in both countries was developing comparably identical. The most significant differences were in the level and development of achieved average income. For example, in 2013 was the average monthly income in Slovakia accounted for only 47.55% of the salary in Austria (€ 1,737). Development of material level of food consumption is differentiated and recording the differences in the consumption of milk, which was all higher in Austria by 63.3% (76 , 9 kg), cheese consumption by 45.0% (20 kg) beef by 37.1% (12 kg), fruit by 73.1% (75.5 kg) and vegetable by 45.2% ( 113.6 kg). In Slovakia was the only higher consumption of poultry and in particular substituted the demand for pork and beef.


Introduction
Recently during the process of globalization Slovakia had passed the phases of economic growth as well as the economic crisis, these factors affect the standard of living and behavior of households and make the formation of a lifestyle change.Household income is reviewed in the economic studies in relation to the political, economic and social situation of the society, analyzing the factors that affect income inequality and by which instruments state conversely affects the income situation of households.
The behavior of the population in the market of goods and services is affected by successive changes in economic conditions in the context of the transformation process.In the short term is determined by income development at the level of companies and households and by changes in the price development of goods and services.This involves the deepening polarization of the population in terms of income.Polarization of income also bases the polarization of consumption expenditures and savings.Income polarization is the emergence of the new target groups with a shift in range and quality characteristics of goods and services.In the long term is the consumer behavior influenced predominantly by demographic developments and integrated consumer patterns, which are characterized by the relative inflexibility in the longer term.These are changing gradually, depending on the socio-economic conditions and cultural routes -patterns.(Pachingerová, M. 2000).
In practice suffer the effects of globalization affect the development and significant change in the agrarian business.They include supply and demand site of agrarian markets throughout the structure.This leads to the development of global food networks and a prerequisite for the success of each of their components becomes awareness and the ability to use the information for immediate evaluation of the market situation and immediately respond in the offer.(Zentková, I. -Hošková, E. 2010).
Inhabitants´ standard of living is usually compared according to the absolute consumption of food in its natural expression as well as the basis of the proportion of food expenditures in total consumption expenditures and the share of expenditures on each of the food groups in the context of food and non-alcoholic beverages expenditures.Over time, rising incomes translate into rising food expenditures and change in consumption patterns.However food differs from the majority of products and services by the fact that their physical consumption can not grow indefinitely, although quality can grow (Kubicová, L. 2008).Growth of income per capita is associated with slower growth in food expenditures, while expenditures on housing, energy, healthcare, transportation are increasing.Development of obligatory expenditures is inversely dependent on the household income, but while food expenditures have increased, their share in total expenditures in Austria and the industrialized countries of the EU were falling more sharply than in Slovakia.

Data and Methods
Problem-solving process is based on the findings of a study published in the professional papers at home and abroad.The quantitative analysis is based on information taken from the Statistical Yearbook of the Slovak Republic and Austria and from publications Agrar Markt Austria.There were applied the basic descriptive statistical methods describing the level and trends of the monitored parameters using software Microsoft Excel.

Development of Gross Domestic Product, Households Income and Consumer Expenditures in Slovakia
Level of income and expenditures of inhabitants depends on the changes in gross domestic product characterizing the level of economic activity of the country.Development of GDP, net cash income, consumer expenditures and consumer prices of households in Slovakia reflect the data in Table 1.

Development and Level of Expenditures on Food, Housing, Energy and Transportation in Slovakia and Austria (in %)
The structure of consumer expenditures by purpose of use (Table 3) shows that the share of expenditures that fall into the category of so-called obligatory expenditures (which includes food, beverages, clothing, rent, fuel, energy, medical care) remain draining a crucial part of consumer expenditures.In 2014 was their share of consumer expenditures amounted to 56.4%.Due to the high share of obligatory expenditures is reduced scope for so-called discretionary spending (expenditures for transportation, recreation and culture, education, cafes).The above  changes are mainly due to changes in income, which creates a different room for maneuver for individual households by social status and income groups (employees, self-employed, pensioners, etc.).In comparison with Austria, in Slovakia were higher consumption expenditures mainly for food, which fell from 24.7% (in 2004), but still oscillated at level higher than 22%.In favor of Slovakia was the favorable development primarily in the spending of funds for housing, energy and transportation (Kubicová, Ľ. -Kádeková, Z.2010).Hard budget constraints of households in Slovakia caused that consumer habits and choices has been determined by income level, family structure and status and higher unemployment compared with Austria.Comparison of consumption of selected foods in Slovakia and Austria was based on the values presented in Table 4 and Figure 2.There was significant lower consumption of nearly all food commodities in Slovakia (except consumption of poultry meat and potatoes) compared with consumption in Austrian households.In terms of the recommended doses and food consumption was actually exhibited the least favorable nutritional situation in the beef consumption, which in Slovakia represented only 36.6 percent share of consumption of Austrian households.Also in terms of healthy and wholesome diet was in Slovakia recorded a negative situation in cheese consumption since consumption at level 9.2 kg per person per year represented only 46.0 percent of consumption exhibited in Austria and was considerably lower than in other countries of the European Union.Similarly, we can characterize the negative trend in the consumption of milk and dairy products in Slovakia, where is the long-term decrease in consumption of milk.Due to the increasing consumption of flavored and sour milk products in the past ten years, the situation develops favorably, but consumption of 48.7 kilograms of milk per person per year reached only 63.3 percent of its consumption in Austria.Slovakia is lagging behind the consumption of vegetables -in 2013 in Austria reached level of 113.6 kg per person per year while only 104.7 kg per person per year in Slovakia.It means a difference of 8.9 kg (7.8%).Consumption of fruit was in 2013 in Slovakia 54.9 kg per person per year and 75.5 kg per person per year in Austria, which indicates the difference 20.6 kg (27.3%) in favor of Austria.

Comparison of Price Levels of Selected Foods in Slovakia and Austria
Consumer choice in the market and particularly in the market for daily consumption of food and non-alcoholic beverages depends not only on the disposable cash income but also on product prices.Consumer price is one of the factors that influence the demand for certain goods or services.Special status between consumer prices of goods belongs to the food prices, which is reflected by national conditionalities that limited growth tends to push up consumer prices and on the other hand the nutritional function tends to pull consumer food prices down.In this part of operation is very difficult to find and keep the equilibrium.Current price affects not only demand but also supply.Different level of income in Slovakia and Austria are also reflected in different levels of consumer prices, which are in the vast majority of food lower than in Austria, which is documented by the data given in Table 5.

Conclusion
The aim of submitted paper was to compare the level of food consumption in Slovakia and Austria and to highlight the factors that determine consumption in terms of availability and disposable income of the population.Average monthly income in Slovakia grew faster than in Austria.In Slovakia the average monthly income increased by 4.1% per annum while in Austria, this increase was only 1.8%.In 2006, monthly income in Slovakia was only 40.72% of the average income in Austria (€ 1,746).In 2014, this gap eased due to higher average monthly income growth in Slovakia, but still accounted only 49.1% of income in Austria (€ 1,746).Expenditures on food and soft drinks made up 23.1% and exceed the food and consumer expenditures in Austria (12.1%) by 19.1%.On the other hand, in Slovakia were 50% lower expenditures on transportation in comparison with Austria.Food prices in Slovakia had been lower than in Austria, especially the price of meat, poultry, olive oil, whereas in Austria has been lower prices of yogurt and milk.Height of consumer expenditures on housing, electricity and fuel were about the same, in Austria a bit higher by 0.9%.Expenditures on alcoholic beverages and tobacco were 1% higher in Slovakia than in Austria.Consumer expenditures on clothing and footwear were at a comparable level in Slovakia (6%) and Austria (5.7%).Lower wages in Slovakia had been mainly reflected in the consumption of beef, which represented only 36.6% of consumption in Austria, 46.0% of the consumption of cheese and 63.3 % consumption of milk.In Slovakia was higher food consumption only in poultry (by 4.7 kg) and potatoes (by 0.8 kg) in comparison with Austria.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Development of Average Monthly Income in Slovakia and in Austria in €

Table 1 : GDP per capita, Net Cash Income and Consumer Expenditures of private Households in €
In recent years, the economic results in Slovakia have proved a slight increase in gross domestic product per capita, which is reflected in the increase in nominal and real net cash income.Households responded to the annual increase in revenue by slight increase in consumer expenditures.Since 2011, the consumer price indices have gradually declined year by year, in 2014 consumer price indices for food and non-alcoholic beverages fell in comparison with 2013 at level of 99.2%.It can be said that inflation is not threatening factor as we assume that inflation is low and stable.The negative consequence associated with inflation is the uncertainty when the rate of inflation is unstable and the price trend varies significantly over a certain period.It can cause rapid changes in supply or demand for services and goods.Although that in the period 2006-2014 the average increase in monthly income was 4.1% in Slovakia while in Austria the monthly income increased by an average of 1.8 % per year.In 2006 monthly income in Slovakia was only 40.72% of the average income of an employee in Austria (€ 1,530).During nine years, this income gap had decreased, as indicated in Table2and Figure1, mainly due to higher average monthly income increases.Even though in 2014 the average monthly income in Slovakia was low and continued to represent only 49.1% of salaries in Austria (€ 1,746).