Goodbye, meat!

Csaba Péntek
founder
Vegan Business Circle

In his welcome speech host Csaba Péntek, founder of the Vegan Business Circle stressed: this was the first time that the conference was organised without donations, solely with the help of domestic sponsors. The main motivation of the organisers is to fight against the killing of animals for food and their being kept in undignified conditions.

Patrik Galavits, journalist at Direkt36 was the moderator of the panel discussions.

Anna Zoltai and Erika Farkas

Anna Zoltai, president of National Association of Public Sector Catering Service Providers (KÖZSZÖV) and certified nutritionist Erika Farkas explained that the Hungarian child catering regulations don’t allow a vegan diet. Animal protein must be included in all main meals in nursery schools and in one main meal per day for children of other ages: this doesn’t only mean meat, but can also include dairy products and eggs.

Gergely Zsolnay
executive chef
The Planteen

Rita Szalma, Patrik Galavits, Zsuzsanna Simon, Andrea Herczeg and Máté Tukacs

Gergely Dávid Molnár 
head of the mentoring programme
Szemléletváltó

Gergely Dávid Molnár, head of the mentoring programme Szemléletváltó said that a few years ago he realised: there was no company culture in Hungary where it was really good to work as an employee, so he tried to create one himself. He told that according to an APVC international survey, the global average job satisfaction of employees is 71%, but in Hungary it is 33%.

The next discussion was titled  “How to grow a stable customer base?” and Federika Fait, sustainability professional and former managing director of vegan canteen and café Planteen used her own example to demonstrate the importance of regular customers in creating a stable financial situation.

Anita Szeghalmi, the owner of Vegan Kifli described her restaurant, which she opened in a residential park in Biatorbágy, as a community rather than a restaurant. György Preyer founder and manager of Vegazzi Specialty Pizzeria told that it is particularly important for a plant-based restaurant to build a workforce that wants to work there and can justify why. Before lunch the organisers provided a guided rapid networking opportunity for participants.

György Preyer, Patrik Galavits, Federika Fait and Anita Szeghalmi

Anita Batternay
managing director
PrestonSales

Anita Batternay, managing director of PrestonSales gave a presentation on how manufacturers can get their products on store shelves and how to work with international chains. It isn’t easy to take a plant-based product into restaurants. In addition to a general lack of trust, there are several quantitative and qualitative requirements to be met.

Attila Bíró, Patrik Galavits, Bernadett Zsiros and István Bruzsa

Bernadett Zsiros, the owner of Mentes Bor drew attention to the fact that vegans may be in for a big surprise in the field of wine, as usually wine isn’t only made from plant-based ingredients, since winemakers often use animal-based materials in the production process. According to István Bruzsa, sales manager of Nestlé, it is easier for a producer to enter the hospitality sector than it was 4 years ago: restaurants and hotels have realised that there is a much more sophisticated demand for meat-free food than breaded mushrooms and steamed vegetables. Attila Bíró, the owner of Sweet Gorilla Free-from Cake Workshop believes it is a problem that restaurant owners often make a judgement based on the quality of products they have ordered in the past – from non-expert manufacturers.

Raul Vida
managing director
Prove/Veganuár

Raul Vida, CEO of Prove and Veganuár has been fighting for 8 years to liberate animals and create a more empathetic world, organising programmes, campaigns, teams and collaborations. He encourages his partners to look not only for a return on their investment in working with the organisation, but also for its social impact.

In the following content creator Zsófia Rimóczi, Sláger FM’s radio presenter Gábor Garami, vegan lifestyle and nutrition consultant, founder of the Dóra Vegan Lifestyle website Dóra Pintér, and BiOrganik general manager Zsolt Szikora discussed what results can be expected from the cooperation between companies producing and selling vegan products and social media content creators.

Gábor Garami, Zsófia Rimóczi, Patrik Galavits, Dóra  Pintér and Zsolt Szikora

The programme ended with participants learning about the story of Tunki Tunki – a company producing vegan dipping sauces and sandwich creams – from owners Melinda Fehér and Róbert Kulcsár. Barna Nagy, head of the communication agency Kreatív Linien that is renewing the brand also took part in the conversation. //.

Barna Nagy, Patrik Galavits, Róbert Kulcsár and Melinda Fehér

//