Homely flavours

One of the last decrees of the previous government’s ministry of agriculture opened a new market for small farmers: they can not only sell fruit, vegetable or eggs that they produced, but also processed products like jam, cheese and sausage. From May small farmers are allowed to process and sell 6 pigs, goats, sheep, emu or ostrich a week. A family now has the right to sell 5.2 tons of jam a year. It is the Central Agricultural Office (MgSzH) that controls whether these farmers keep the food safety regulations of the European Union. To make this control more efficient, the government decided that farmers are allowed to sell their products in the capital city and in a 40-km zone around their premises. The government also changed public procurement legislation: from this autumn small farmers can also sell their products directly to public catering companies (they only have to register in the local office of the MgSZH), which makes the situation of schools and kindergartens easier. According to Béla Mártonffy, the managing director of FruitVeb these new market opportunities are favourable, as they improve the sales opportunities of more than 100,000 small farmers and their families, and 30,000 producers. However, he also thinks that public procurement procedures of producer organisations’ accepted programmes should be made easier. Livestock farmers hope that the ministry will keep the promise of achieving a balance between livestock and crop farming, and the black economy will be eliminated: presently 30 percent of pork, 25-30 percent of chicken and 20-25 percent of turkey that reach consumers are from illegal slaughter.