The Russian embargo took fruit farmers’ profits away

Hungary exports about half of the 2.5 million tons of fruit harvested each year. Farmers would like to increase this by 1 million tons and sell 50-70 percent abroad, primarily in Russia, by 2020. Before the embargo 5 percent of Hungary’s fruit and vegetable export ended up in Russia – informed Béla Mártonffy, the president of FruitVeb, Hungary’s Interprofessional Organisation for Fruit and Vegetable. Government officials and experts from the sector agree that certain steps are inevitable to take if we want to reach this goal: ending VAT fraud, introducing efficient control and using EU funding more targetedly. Due to the Russian embargo 1.5 million tons of apple remains in the European Union’s market, which leads to a decrease in prices and that causes major problems for Hungarian growers, as this year’s harvest was exceptionally good at around 800,000 tons. The Russian ban only concerns fresh and frozen apple, so Hungary should increase the proportion of processed apple in its export. Until then the plan is that the food industry purchases the majority of the apple surplus and the remaining quantity is sold as fresh apple. The Ministry of Agriculture earmarked HUF 40 million for promoting Hungarian apple in the stores of 6 major retail chains.