Paradise isn’t here yet

“Products from the third world enter the EU at unrealistically low prices, with which neither domestic nor EU production costs can compete. Strict quality assurance, traceability, food safety and sustainability criteria for EU production entail significant additional costs”,

underlines Sándor Nagypéter, president and managing director of the Southern Great Plain Horticulturist Cooperative (Délkertész).

Health creates new categories

József Rácz, managing director of the Prémium Kert group informs us that the vegetable sector is a little ahead of fruit growers in terms of organisation level and competitiveness.

“Fruit farms are more exposed to the weather, the necessary technological improvements haven’t been made and the financial support system isn’t effective”,

explains the managing director.

Kamil Tóth, client manager retail of Rijk Zwaan Budapest Vetőmagkereskedelmi Kft.:

“The faster development of vegetable production is also due to the shorter growing cycle, which makes it possible to adopt new varieties and trends sooner”.

Healthy eating is becoming trendy, with new product categories such as functional foods and snack vegetables emerging.

In terms of organisation and competitiveness, the vegetable sector is slightly ahead of fruit producers

VAT reduction could solve the problems

Zsolt Bűdi
CEO
Bács Zöldért

Zsolt Bűdi, the CEO of Bács Zöldért Zrt. reckons the share of import in domestic retail trade is unacceptably high – he estimates it can be 90-95% in winter, but the proportion of domestic products is below 30% in the spring too.

“Even in the case of the most basic products (onions, potatoes and carrots) imports dominate”,

he adds. He believes a VAT reduction would be the only solution to eliminate VAT fraud. Csaba Juhos, sales manager and president of Fresh Fruit TÉSZ sees similar problems on the market.

“Our cooperative sells its products mainly abroad, so we are suppliers of just a few retail chains in Hungary. Unfortunately, in wholesale and the so-called “small marketplaces” our chances are also limited by non-VAT-paying fraudsters and small producers”,

we learn from the president.

Growing demand for ready to cook and healthy products

Berta Kovács, key account manager of Eisberg Hungary shares the clear changes in consumption habits:

“Eisberg’s Colourful Bowl product range is showing significant growth, because demand is on the rise for healthy ready-to-eat meals available from the fresh food fridge in shops”.

Retail trade’s attitude has also changed, because sales don’t drop during the summer months, so the focus on promotions has shifted accordingly. Whenever possible Eisberg works with domestic lettuce and vegetables suppliers, but climate change has reduced the options, for example the summer lettuce selection to choose from is now smaller.

Potato is potato?

Potatoes are struggling with a specific problem on the Hungarian market. According to Kristóf Szabó, managing director of EURO SOL Kft. the main problem is that the “potato is potato” principle dominates the thinking of shoppers, as it isn’t emphasised enough that there aren’t only red, yellow, purple and salad potatoes in the world.

“In the EU there are nearly 2,000 potato varieties available on the market, from which four will show up in Hungarian stores”,

explains Kristóf Szabó.

Plus potatoes aren’t a sexy product, so they are difficult to advertise and promote. Still, branding is the future, breaking the “potato is potato” curse and providing consumers with quality varieties and premium products, in a real competition. //