FruitVeb: gardeners fear a shortage of fertilizers

By: STA Date: 2022. 09. 05. 12:48

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The EU’s sanctions policy also affects the supply of fertilizers, as the gas crisis worsens, a shortage may develop – read the statement of the FruitVeb Hungarian Vegetable and Fruit Association and Product Council on Monday.

According to the organization, the next year could be critical for horticulture, especially smaller ones (Photo: Pixabay)

On the organization’s website, Vice President Zoltán Gubacsi detailed the challenges facing horticulture. Even now, you have to wait at least 2-3 months for horticultural fertilizers, and the prices have multiplied in a year. The rise in energy prices also complicates the situation for producers, and anyone who now signs a contract for electricity can count on losses, even if they have thermal water heating. The price of seeds, seedlings, and pesticides also rose significantly this year, by almost 50 percent, and the 15-20 percent increase in labor costs also needs to be managed, they wrote. The expert also expects a decrease in demand due to the higher cost of living, but not yet a significant drop in production. The extent of the reduction may depend on the offers that canneries and refrigeration companies give to producers. He added that processors themselves are in trouble because of energy prices.

The prices of vegetables do not yet include the high production costs, the new prices will be difficult to determine. The situation is difficult elsewhere in Europe, energy prices in the Netherlands, for example, are already a much bigger problem than in Hungary, but Spanish and Italian producers have also curbed their emissions.

MTI