The 21st century rebirth of Hungarian agriculture is our work

(Photo: AM/Csaba Pelsőczy)

He added: in order to ensure the safety of Hungarian livestock farming and waterfowl farming, these developments are necessary. In order for these investments to be realized, it was necessary for the Hungarian government to make a strategic decision in the most difficult time, that is, to increase the national co-financing rate for the investments in the strategic plan of the Common Agricultural Policy to the maximum, 80 percent – he said. With this, the Hungarian government tripled the resources available for investments, providing a historic response to the challenges of the time – he pointed out.

One of the largest and most modern farms in the country can be handed over in Mélykút

He congratulated the group of companies on the development, indicating: a development of this scale could not have been realized without committed domestic entrepreneurs, such as the leaders of the Bács-Tak group of companies, who build, invest, and apply the most modern technologies in the spirit of sustainability, innovation, and quality. István Nagy stated that the farm was realized with nearly 2 billion forints of state support and is more than a simple livestock farm: it is a unified system of quality, safety, disease control, and animal welfare. “A new standard in animal husbandry” – said the minister, adding that up to 1.2 million ducks can be raised annually on the 30,000 square meter rearing area, where animal welfare, feeding, watering, temperature control and ventilation are ensured by automation. Closed technology and strict hygiene regulations guarantee maximum safety – he explained. The strictest rules are being introduced by international standards, in order to ensure the transparency of production and the most important values of the Hungarian food industry: quality and food safety. According to István Nagy, all this not only gives new impetus to the region, but also further strengthens the Hungarian poultry sector, which not only plays a decisive role in domestic supply, but also provides a significant export base. He emphasized that further efforts are needed to maintain the market situation. “We can only build a strong and crisis-resistant sector if we continuously develop it,” he said. The Hungarian government supports livestock farmers in this regard, including poultry farmers. In support of this, he highlighted that since 2015, 9 tenders have been launched for the development of farms, and over ten years, until July 2025, 365 billion forints have been paid to livestock farms for the development of their farms, which means 3,300 investments. That is why you can see renewed and brand new farms all over Hungary, he said. 167 billion forints were spent on the development of poultry farms, which helped renew more than 500 poultry farms. Of these, 85 were waterfowl farms, for which 32 billion forints were spent, he said.

The work continues: support for livestock keepers and breeders is being ensured without interruption with the CAP strategic tenders

Last year, support for investments in livestock farms was announced, support decisions were made in the first round for smaller-scale investments, 209 applications were supported, with a support amount of approximately 10.7 billion forints – he explained, indicating that new support decisions appear every week. The range of possibilities was wide in the tenders, it was possible to apply for the construction of new buildings, the purchase of equipment and machinery, energy renovation, animal welfare investments, as well as reducing the risk of epidemic animal diseases. He mentioned that the smaller-scale tender, which provided a maximum support of 200 million forints, had a budget of 50 billion forints, and the larger-scale tender, which provided a maximum support of 5 billion forints, had a budget of 150 billion forints. A total of 1,857 applications were received for the two calls, in which a total of 860 billion forints of support were requested – the Minister announced, emphasizing: the numbers clearly indicate the development intentions of livestock farmers. They are doing everything they can to reallocate resources and declare all valid applications successful, because they want to increase the competitiveness of Hungarian agriculture – he said. The Bács-Tak Group is one of Hungary’s leading waterfowl breeding and sales groups, which works in closed, vertical integration, meaning that everything from mixed feed production to poultry breeding and processing, up to and including sales, is carried out by companies belonging to the group. It carries out its activities in Southern Hungary at 17 locations, and depending on the period, it has a contractual relationship with 50-100 wage breeders. The number of employees is almost 500, and it also employs 150-200 temporary workers from time to time. The group’s annual consolidated sales revenue is close to 20 billion forints, and it processes and sells nearly 30 thousand tons of roast duck and meat goose annually. Nearly two-thirds of sales are exported to Western Europe.

AM/MTI