Univer Product Zrt.’s R+D+I activity covers the whole food chain and the full product path – we learned from Attila Avramucz, Univer’s corporate relations director.

The group’s goal is to produce every ingredient that can be grown in Hungary in Bács-Kiskun, Csongrád and Békés counties for their 1,100 products. Univer’s suppliers have been working with them for generations. Univer Product Zrt.’s most important base material is hot seasoning pepper. Formerly R&D (breeding) activity was state financed, but after this has ended Univer Product Zrt. had to take things into its won hands: they successfully applied for HUF 131 million funding for launching their own hot seasoning pepper improvement programme – told Gábor Palotás, director of strategy and development. They managed to breed stronger and more disease resistant pepper varieties and due to this, Univer recently put Haragos Pista on the market: the new paprika cream is four times stronger than Erős Pista. This year Unilever doubles its currently 24,000-ton tomato processing capacity. Univer Product Zrt.’s baking technology development was funded with HUF 18.7 million from the New Széchenyi Plan. This step led to their agreement with Lipóti Bakery: the latter’s strong brand and traditional technology was combined with the former’s expertise and sales channels. Flour supplier Gyermelyi Zrt. also joined the synergy created by the cooperation.