Jože Podgoršek

Ljubljana – The National Assembly was expected to take note of the resignation of Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek on Tuesday but did not even convene a session. The college of deputy group leaders, which has the formal power to call a session, was inquorate because coalition faction leaders did not show up.

Ljubljana – Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek resigned on Wednesday after he became the target of media scrutiny over lack of clarity regarding the payment of his weekend stay at an upscale hotel in Bohinj in January. He said he was “resigning exclusively due to the late payment of the bill”, and was accepting responsibility for this.

Dubai – The Slovenian pavilion at the Dubai Expo hosted a business forum of the country’s food processing industry on Monday. It was attended by Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek, who said that his visit to the United Arab Emirates was also about looking for new business partners.

Strasbourg – Slovenian Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek on Tuesday welcomed an initiative for a new business model for low-carbon farming that is based on the actual sequestration of carbon and involves the option of evaluating that on the market.

Strasbourg – EU agriculture ministers, including Slovenia’s Jože Podgoršek, learned on Monday about a low-carbon farming project and the work of France’s Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAe) in the field of viticulture, as part of a two-day informal meeting hosted by the French EU presidency.

Dobrovo – Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek held talks on Friday with his Italian counterpart Stefano Patuanelli. They discussed plans for the joint promotion of Slovenian and Italian wines from the border-spanning region, especially the Rebula white wine, known in Italy as Ribolla.

Brussels – As the last session of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council under the Slovenian EU presidency got under way on Sunday in a bid to reach a political agreement on the fishing quotas for 2022, Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek said he expected the talks to be tough but was confident a balanced solution would be found.

Kočevska Reka – The SiDG state forestry company held its first public auction of valuable timber in Kočevska Reka on Monday, with almost the entire offering of around 650 m3 of timber being sold. The auction was visited by Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek, who endorsed this method of selling wood from the state-owned forests.

Ljubljana – Primary schools and kindergartens will serve traditional Slovenian breakfast on Slovenian Food Day, introducing a novelty this year – a story about traditional farmer dish – to further raise the youth’s awareness of local food and eating habits, also to reduce the amount of food waste and climate impact.

Dubai – Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek met in Dubai on Tuesday Saif Mohammed Rashid Saeed al Shara, a high representative of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment of the UAE. The pair talked cooperation in agricultural and food products and the transfer of knowledge, especially in terms of cooperation of expert institutions.