Costly food chain safety

In 2015 the food chain safety supervision fee, which was introduced in 2012, grew to 6 percent of a company’s net sales for those grocery retail chains which make more than net HUF 300 billion a year.

This is expected to bring 1.5 times more money for the National Food Chain Safety Authority (NÉBIH) but on average 15 times bigger expenditure for grocery store chains. After the recent changes, store chains with net sales below HUF 500 million don’t have to pay the fee, until HUF 50 billion the fee is 0.1 percent, above HUF 100 billion it is 2 percent and above this sum the fee increases by 1 percent as per each HUF 50 billion. This year the total amount NÉBIH gets from the fee may be as much as HUF 23 billion, which makes up for 40 percent of the authority’s budget. The new food chain supervision fee may restructure Hungary’s retail sector, just like the Electronic Freight Goods Tracking System (EKÁER) and the advertisement tax do. Store chains operated in a franchise system may suffer less from the increased fee. Spar Hungary has already decided to transform many stores into franchise units, while Tesco has announced the delaying of development projects and store closures. The National Trade Association (OKSZ) is afraid that masses of people working in the retail sector will be laid off – not to mention that no new jobs will be created in the sector. The association is of the opinion that the sector can’t pay HUF 15 billion more than it did last year, due to delayed developments and increased food prices. They reckon that it will also be more difficult for Hungarian groceries to stay in the market as import is expected to rise.