Effective action must be taken against the placing of fake honey on the EU market

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At the press conference following the meeting of the agriculture ministers of the EU member states, István Nagy emphasized: Bulgaria and Romania requested the application of protective measures against the import of honey from Ukraine, since the duty-free quota specified in the autonomous trade liberalization measure – the so-called ATM regulation – has been exhausted, but the amount of honey arriving from Ukraine causes problems on internal markets even as a duty-laden import. Regarding the fisheries issues, he said: the positions are still far from each other, tough negotiations are expected in the coming weeks in order to find a solution acceptable to everyone. I would definitely like to coordinate the biological, economic and social balance so that the three-way unit can serve the everyday lives of those who live in it – he said. István Nagy also reported that Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Vitaly Koval also participated in the meeting, who said that 88 percent of Ukrainian grain exports are already carried out by water, but this is threatened by the Russian missile attacks on Odessa. According to the minister, Vitaly Koval’s visit was very important because the current ATM regulation expires next June. “It is very important what principles and agreements the new free trade agreement that will regulate the import and export of agricultural products between the European Union and Ukraine will be based on,” the Hungarian minister emphasized. Speaking about the difficulties of the market situation, the Minister of Agriculture listed extreme weather, the spread of animal diseases and trade and geopolitical challenges as the biggest problems. As he said, the member states consider it important that the Council regularly deals with the situation of agricultural markets. In addition to market information, the Hungarian Presidency of the EU also held thematic discussions on the market conditions of agricultural sectors with the Special Committee on Agriculture. “A summary document was prepared from the series of discussions, which contains the observations and proposals of our member state on what means could be used to make the operation of agricultural markets more efficient and stable,” he said.

The Minister of Agriculture also spoke about the development of an EU-level protein strategy, which could reduce the amount of protein imports In this regard

István Nagy was of the opinion that a balance must be found between plant and animal protein. “There were member states that advocated supporting natural proteins, and several even wanted to ban artificially produced proteins on the EU market,” he said. “Member states are concerned that the tradition of land-based food production is fundamentally changing. If we take land out of food production, if we produce food artificially, we will start a process that we cannot see the end of,” the Minister of Agriculture said.

MTI