Grüne Woche: successful Hungarians

The most important thing the correspondent has learned from this year’s Grüne Woche (16-25 January) is that Hungarian food is important for the European Market. It has also been officially announced that Hungary will be the “featured guest” of next year’s Grüne Woche. The twelve exhibitors at the stand reserved by AMC were presented in line with a new and spectacular concept. According to József Pál director of AMC, their objective was to present typical Hungarian products in a more attractive way and to persuade more exhibitors to attend as well. After four years, Gyula Ludász from Berettyóújfalu attended the event again with his sheep and goat cheese selection. – Large chains are also interested in our products. We have met representatives of Kaufhof and we have begun to supply them – he said. This has been the first time in Berlin for Lúdland from Orosháza, with their goose and duck liver products. The company was formed by Artúr Varga and Sándor Dzurek six years ago. – The Germans could see for themselves that stuffing goose and ducks is not torture – explained Artúr Varga. They could see the Dussan stuffing machine which is also used in France. The most important event during Grüne Woche was the first summit held for 31 ministers of agriculture. – We would like the ministers of agriculture from the leading agricultural producers to meet in Berlin regularly – said Ilse Aigner, German minister of agriculture and consumer protection. The 31 countries represented one third of the world’s population. A declaration was accepted by the ministers, which supports the UN initiative for establishing a global partnership in food production. Fair trade, reduction of subsidies and the termination of export subsidies were also priority topics. József Gráf met with the Czech and Swedish ministers of agriculture. He emphasised that goose and duck liver produced using the traditional stuffing method is a recognised hungaricum, regardless of what Four Paws is trying communicate. – We will do everything in our power to protect Hungarian producers – he said. The event which attracted the greatest public interest was the 2nd international conference of ministers of agriculture. The topic of the discussion was sustaining an adequate supply of food for humanity in the next 50 years. According to the Russian minister, they have the potential to supply food for 450 million people. However, a new price policy and investment in rural development would be required to exploit this potential. He pointed out that rather than WTO, FAO would be more suitable for co-ordinating global agricultural policy. Mariann Fischer Boel welcomed the idea of making Berlin the Davos of international agricultural policy.