Promising first six months in agricultural foreign trade

The effects of the drought have been disastrous, far less wheat was harvested in Russia, the Ukraine and Hungary – consequently, prices have started increasing. Corn yield suffered even more from the lack of rainfall, for instance in the USA, the world’s greatest corn producer, one third less corn is expected to be harvested (and the same trend is true for Hungary as well). It is needless to say that lower crop yield means more expensive animal breeding, as the price of fodder is also rising, which in the end leads to increased meat prices. Hungary’s export is stagnating, but in the first six months of 2012 our agricultural and food export improved by 13.2 percent and represented a value of EUR 3.9 billion; in the same period import amounted to EUR 2.2 billion. It is also important that our agri-food foreign trade balance constituted 47 percent of our total trade balance surplus in the first six months, making the food industry a key factor of Hungary’s economy. Our agri-food trade balance surplus in the examined period was 46.9 percent higher than in the base period. We produced the most dynamic growth in the export of products of vegetable origin, followed by vegetable oils and highly processed products. The export of livestock and products of animal origin was stagnating. Cereal and cereal product export generated EUR 981 million and a 15.2-percent increase in revenue. Our oily seed export grew by 178.2 percent and vegetable oil export augmented by 22 percent. Despite the stagnation in our livestock export, live pig and sheep export was up 22 and 20 percent, respectively. Food, beverage and tobacco products: our frozen vegetable export rose by 32 percent and we exported 43 percent more dried vegetables. We imported 11.2 percent more meat and meat products, our sugar import was up 20 percent and Hungary’s animal feed import elevated by 12 percent. In the examined period the European Union’s share from Hungary’s agricultural export was 83.2 percent and the EU was the source of 91.5 percent of our import. We realised a 14-percent export growth (EUR 400 million) on this market. 57 percent of our export went to the so-called old member states and 43 percent ended up in the new ones. Hungary’s agri-food export to non-EU countries amounted to EUR 647.6 million (72 percent of this went to European countries). When it comes to agri-food market expansion, Hungary should definitely concentrate on Europe because a few-percent export growth on the continent is worth much more than doubling our export anywhere outside Europe: Africa, Asia, North and South America and Australia represent a mere 0.5 percent of our agricultural export! For instance, our export growth on the German, Romanian, Italian, Austrian and Dutch markets was EUR 467 million. From our important export markets only Slovakia showed a negative trend with a minus EUR 80 million performance.