Tamás Éder: “The goal is increasing efficiency and promoting robotics and automated technologies”

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/6-7.

How do you evaluate the performance of the domestic food industry based on its 2024 results?

Tamás Éder
president
FÉSZ

– Last year the food industry’s output grew by nearly 4%. However, this wasn’t enough to fully compensate for the previous year’s more than 10% decline. Fruit and vegetable processing deviated the most from the average performance, closing an extremely weak year.

What were the major regulatory changes in the past year that affected the food industry?

-The gradual phasing out of the government price controls of previous years was a particularly important step. Price caps were abolished on 1 January and replaced by a mandatory discount system for the products concerned, until the middle of the summer. This significantly disrupted the functioning of the market in the first half of the year. As soon as the measure ended, consumer prices for these products began to rise.

What trends can be observed in food export?

– The most serious problem remains the ongoing uncertainty. Disruptions in foreign trade were already noticeable last year, but these have only intensified in recent months. More and more countries – including Hungary – view food production as a strategic sector, trying to help it with protective measures.

What do you think about the labour situation in the food industry?

-Workforce shortage has remained a serious challenge. Not only is it difficult to retain well-trained professionals, but it is also becoming more difficult to recruit and keep workers with lower qualifications. Automation and robotics may be crucial factors in the future.

What results did the previously announced support programmes bring and what new opportunities are available to players in the sector?

-Previously food industry subsidies were primarily available to micro- and small businesses, but in the last 4-5 years medium-sized and large companies have also been able to benefit from development opportunities. A large-scale programme is currently underway, providing support to two target groups: in one case the lower limit is HUF 50bn, while in the other category HUF 150bn is available.

What steps did FÉSZ take last year to support the food industry?

-One of our most important tasks is to participate in the development of the conditions for funding applications. Through our professional assessment of the schemes and our recommendations, we do our best to ensure that the available resources are used effectively by actors in the sector.

What are the most important strategic directions and objectives of the Hungarian food industry for the next 2-3 years?

-Today it is no longer enough to simply replace 30-year-old equipment with modern machines – the kind of solutions we need are those that can reduce human resource requirements very much. Production processes must be almost fully automated, otherwise we won’t be able to remain competitive in the long run.

What key professional and interest representing activities does FÉSZ plan for 2025?

– We regularly call the attention of the press and decision-makers to the fact that the social taxes on domestic businesses significantly exceed the regional and EU levels. We are striving to ensure that these extra payment obligations – whether they relate to the EPR system, the public health product tax or state-regulated water and sewage charges – are reconsidered in the longer term.