Page 25 - Green knowledge 2024

Photo: Erling Fløistad
The challenge of food self-sufficiency
Every year, NIBIO publishes figures that show how self-sufficient Norway is in terms of
food. The degree of self-sufficiency has been between 40 and 50 percent since 1953, and in
2023, the figure was 47 percent. But the calculation can be approached in different ways.
Should we consider the import of feed, foreign
machinery, and labour? Should we calculate in kilos,
calories, or protein? And what about the fish we
export?
Mads Svennerud, Senior Adviser at NIBIO, explains
that NIBIO seeks to maintain the same methods and
assumptions that have been used since the early
20th century.
“We calculate gross consumption like this,” he
explains.
Production + Import – Export = Consumption.
“The figures are given in kilos and energy, which
makes a difference for fruit and vegetables. If we cal-
culate in kilos, fruit and vegetables made up a quar-
ter of what we ate in 2023. If we calculate in energy,
it was only 5%. We are quite self-sufficient in prod-
ucts from animal husbandry, less so with grains and
vegetables.”
In the 2021 Hurdal Platform, the government set a
target of 50% self-sufficiency, corrected for the
import of feed raw materials. The idea that the figure
should be adjusted for feed import is new. Svennerud
emphasises that Norway also imports other things,
such as labour and machinery.
The self-sufficiency ratio (the Norwegian ratio
excludes animal feed) shows how much of the whole-
sale consumption of food comes from Norwegian
production based on current dietary habits, but we
have several related concepts. The coverage ratio
shows how much food energy we would have if the
food that we export was used in Norway. This pri-
marily concerns fish.
Self-sufficiency capacity also considers the possibility
of shifting the diet to a more plant-based one. Much
of the grain currently used for animal feed could be
used for human food instead.
Purpose: Funding: Contact: With an increasingly tense geopolitical situation and the growing risk of extreme weather and
disasters, food preparedness is becoming more important. NIBIO ensures that Norway has an
overview of its food self-sufficiency based on different assumptions.
Directorate of Health and Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Senior Adviser Mads Svennerud, Division of Survey and Statistics.
Email: mads.svennerud@nibio.no | Phone: +47 941 46 197
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