Abstract
The right to food is a fundamental one, and the optimization between human needs and available resources is a challenge in all countries. The main goal of this study is to find the factors that determine food security and to determine the level of food security in the Western Balkans while undergoing the process of European Union (EU) integration. In order to achieve this, four Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) dimensions of food security are analyzed: stability, availability, access, and utilization. The Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE) method is then used to rank Western Balkan and EU countries according to food security. The results show a significant difference among these countries in terms of their levels of food security, which is a consequence of Western Balkan countries’ significant lag in economic development in comparison to the EU. Although the level of food security in Western Balkan countries is lower than in EU countries, it is not endangered. However, it can become endangered under crisis conditions (like the COVID-19 pandemic). The main reasons for this discrepancy are high food supply variability, dependence on cereal import, and lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in these countries than in EU.
Highlights
The concept of food security has been developing for over 40 years
Since there are a limited number of papers analyzing Western Balkan and European Union (EU) countries’ food security, this paper contributes to filling this literature gap
All analyzed countries are nutritionally secure, some Western Balkan countries are highly dependent on imports of agri-food products, but the modern retail sector allows imports from relatively developed countries of the region and the EU
Summary
The concept of food security has been developing for over 40 years This term was first used at the World Food Conference in 1974, when the focus was on food availability and price stability. Food security should “ensure that the entire population at all times has a physical and economic approach to the basic food products they need”. The most widely accepted definition of food security was created at the World Food Summit in 1996, where “food security at the individual, household, state, regional and world level is achieved when all people have a physical and economic approach at all times with sufficient amounts of safe and adequate
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