Our complete absence was not the result of a lack or resources’

T. M.: Why was there no Hungarian collective stand at SIAL and at Alimentaria this year? P. J.: It is true that in the past couple of years it seemed impossible that we would stay away from SIAL. At the last few SIALs we were present with an ever-decreasing floor space. Not participating in SIAL was a bad decision by the ministry that could ruin several years of hard work by dozens of Hungarian SMEs. • T.M.: How come that we are still represented at events in Asia? Why do not we spend less on this year’s Grüne Woche instead of staying away from important trade fairs in Europe? P. J.: Unfortunately this year we will not be present at Asian events either.

Our partner country status at Grüne Woche created numerous advantages for Hungary on the German market. We did not stay away from SIAL because of financial reasons, as in our HUF 1 billion budget for 2010 we could have found HUF 30-35 million to participate. • T. M.: What are the plans of AMC and the ministry in the field of communication? P. J.: AMC’s budget has been declining since 2003 and the lack of resources led to cutting communication costs, as a result of which the target group is often not informed about our programmes.