It is important for Hungary to bring products with the highest possible level of processing to the market

He recalled that in the 1990s, the domestic food industry processing plants were privatized, and the new owners closed them down, the raw material was taken out of the country, and then brought back after being processed. In Hungary’s first European Union cycle, the social-liberal government turned subsidies to the social sphere instead of the economy.

The consequence of all this was that the income of Hungarian farmers became 53 percent of the average of the 27 European Union member states. Profitability increases with processing and added value, he said.

The minister called it a historic decision of the Hungarian government that the amount of national co-financing for EU funds was set, in a unique way in Europe, not at the European average of 17.5, but at the maximum of 80 percent.
He said that until 2027 HUF 2,900 billion is available for rural development and manufacturing investments, of which HUF 600 billion comes from the European Union, HUF 2,300 billion is a national resource. “We can produce, we have the facilities for production, the question is how we can increase the level of processing,” he said. According to him, a good answer to this is the development of GOF Hungary Kft., which has built a modern drying, storage and processing capacity.