Viera Baricic

Ms Viera Baričičová graduated at Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic in horticulture and completed her PhD in the field of special plant production also at the same university.

For many years she worked as a head of fruit and vegetable quality control in Slovakia, especially with regard to quality standards for fruit and vegetables and their interpretation.

Since 2016, in addition to quality standards, she is responsible for implementation of the EU Common agricultural policy, primarily the EU Common market organization and its implementation at the national level.

Recently, she is a professional employee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic and member of the CAP reform team, as well as one of the key staff in the creation and implementation of the EU policy – Strategic plan.

She is the representative of the Slovak Republic to the EC Committee for Common Market Organization – Fruit and Vegetables, country representative to the  OECD Scheme for the Application of the International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables, UNECE Working Party on Agricultural Quality Standards, UNECE Specialized Section on Fresh Fruit and Vegetables and Codex Alimentarius Committee for fresh fruit and vegetables.

She served as a chairperson of the OECD Scheme for Application of the International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables and as a chairperson of the UNECE Working Party 7 for Agricultural Quality Standards.

Numerous countries have been visited in her capacity as an expert involved in organization and speaker at capacity building activities related to the quality inspection, standards interpretation and establishment of the functioning inspection bodies. She has participated actively in international projects in Eastern Europe, Balkan region, Africa, Asia, and Australia, representing the Slovak Republic in international standards setting bodies (TAIEX, OECD, UNECE, UNIDO)

Professional experience:

• 30 years of experience in horticulture, research, and quality management,
• 21 years of experience on issues related to fruit and vegetables quality control,
• Over 15 years of experience in EU pre – accession advisory work,
• 15 years of experience in market and commodity strategies development, in drafting policy documents and report for agriculture sector and in international assessment of agricultural commodities market potential,
• Proven hands-on experience as being an expert on horticulture, EU Common Market Organization,
• Producers Organizations in Fruit and Vegetables, transposition of the EU legislative to the national legal framework, fruit and vegetables quality inspection, conformity checks and quality control management according to the EU requirements, agricultural market review – horticultural commodities and international agricultural trade, fresh fruit and vegetables quality requirements, information transfer and capacity building and EU pre–accession advisory work to the candidate countries.