Food statistics: 54 percent self-sufficiency, 21 sugar cubes
The FSO pocket statistics link agriculture, industry, trade and consumption. They make dependencies visible – but mix data years and leave questions of power open.
The Swiss food chain runs from the farm through industry, wholesale and retail to restaurants. The new pocket statistics from the Federal Statistical Office compress this complex structure onto ten pages. It is precisely their compact figures that show where Switzerland remains heavily dependent – and where an apparently simple indicator conceals more than it explains.
One in ten employed people works in the chain
For 2023, the publication lists 47,600 agricultural workplaces with 147,600 employees. Add to that around 5,500 food industry businesses with 89,300 employees, 3,100 wholesale businesses with 35,800, and 11,900 food retail outlets with 104,200 employees. Restaurants and similar establishments employed 186,000 people at 26,400 workplaces.
Taken together, roughly one in ten employed people in Switzerland works in one segment of the food chain. That makes nutrition not only a question of consumption but a significant labour market. At the same time, the pocket statistics show how unevenly the stages are organised: many small farms face more strongly concentrated processing and distribution.
Self-sufficiency varies greatly depending on the product
The average degree of self-sufficiency stood at 53.7 percent in 2023. That figure is politically catchy but of only limited explanatory value. For milk the value was 112.5 percent, for meat 85.7 percent, while for fish it was just 2.5 percent. So in some categories Switzerland produces more than the domestic market consumes, and in others it depends almost entirely on imports.
The overall figure, too, must not be confused with independence. Agriculture needs imported feed, fertiliser, energy, machinery and intermediate inputs. Moreover, the degree of self-sufficiency says little about whether products are available seasonally, at what prices they are offered, or how resilient transport and processing capacities would be in a crisis.
Trade connects supply and value creation
In 2023 Switzerland imported food worth 13.5 billion francs and exported such goods worth 9.6 billion francs. For fruit and vegetables alone, the statistics record 2024 imports of 2.925 billion francs but exports of only 98 million francs. That deficit is no proof that agriculture has failed: climate, land area, season and consumer preferences set natural limits.
The figures show rather that food security rests on two pillars. Domestic production creates a base of its own; reliable trade relationships fill gaps and increase variety. If imports are treated as a weakness across the board, specialisation and export successes drop out of view. If, conversely, they are assumed to be available at any time, geopolitical, climatic and logistical risks are underestimated.
The sugar figure stands out – but does not explain everything
Particularly vivid is the recorded consumption of 30.1 kilograms of sugar per person in 2023. Arithmetically that corresponds to about 21 sugar cubes a day. The indicator describes the quantity available or consumed in the statistics; it is not a direct measurement of what any single person actually eats. Losses, industrial use and large differences between households cannot be read from it.
Even so, the figure makes visible a dimension that matters for health policy. For prevention, however, it is not enough to admonish consumers alone. Recipes, portion sizes, advertising and comprehensible labelling all help determine how much sugar is taken in day to day.
The biggest gap lies between the years
The edition carries the year 2025 but combines data from 2022, 2023 and 2024. That is customary in official statistics because of differing survey and publication cycles. Anyone wanting to assess developments must nonetheless not read the values as if they all described the same point in time.
Market power, margins along the chain, food losses and the distribution of risks also become only partly visible. According to the FSO, agriculture caused around 21 percent of economy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2023; how costs and returns are distributed between production, processing and trade is hardly shown by the pocket statistics.
Their value therefore lies less in a single headline than in the map they provide. They make dependencies comparable – and at the same time show which questions a compact collection of figures must leave open.
