Ljubljana - The Chamber of Commerce (TZS) has rushed to assure the public of sufficient food stocks and undisrupted supply chains in Slovenia as it denied reports on Tuesday that store shelves were empty.

The chamber has conducted a survey among retailers, who have reported back that the supply of food and other products continues as per usual and stocks are sufficient.

"Consumers can be perfectly calm. Retailers have sufficient stocks of foodstuffs. Supplies are running smoothly and no different than with other periods," TZS chairman Mariča Lah said in a press release on Tuesday.

She conceded that it may happen for a shelf to be empty for a short period as it could not be refilled right away as it could take time for some goods to arrive from warehouses.

Supplies are made daily and when it runs out of stock at the store, grocers refill the shelves in the fastest time possible, usually on the same day or the next.

The chamber said reports circulated in social media in recent days alleging that store shelves had been stripped bare of cheap oil and flour were inaccurate.

Prices of energy and other commodities, rising even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and even steeper since, are also pushing up food prices. This also because Russian and Ukraine are major global suppliers of basic foodstuffs, in particular cereals, and fertilizer.

"Slovenia's trade sector is robust, resilient, strong and well-functioning," TZS said, adding that this had been manifested during the past two years of Covid-19.

Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek, speaking at a farmers' meeting in Lukovica today, also repeated that there was no shortage of food or farming products in Slovenia as a result of the war in Ukraine.

"Thus three's no need to hoard stockpiles, as a lot of food may got to waste in time," he said, but also said Slovenia had its work cut out to increase self-sufficiency.