Crisis support for Hungarian fish farmers

By: STA Date: 2023. 06. 27. 11:00

The recent rise in feed prices, the additional costs caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war and last year’s drought had such a serious impact on Hungarian fish production that the Ministry of Agriculture developed and announced a HUF 3.1 billion crisis support scheme from the released resources of the Hungarian Fisheries Operational Program – announced Zsolt Feldman.

(Photo: Pixabay)

The goal of the Ministry of Agriculture is to stabilize the situation of Hungarian fish production and maintain the safety of Hungarian fish supply – stated the state secretary responsible for agriculture and rural development, who detailed: the tender call that has just been published provides a compensation opportunity for businesses both in the case of lake farm fish production and intensive industrial fish production. For pond fish production, fish farmers can claim a maximum of HUF 101,237/hectare, and for intensive factory fish production a maximum of HUF 138,000/ton. It is possible to submit grant applications from July 23, 2023 to August 31, 2023.

In this case, support can be applied for

Zsolt Feldman explained that the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, through the Hungarian Fish Management Operational Program, can provide financial compensation to the actors of the fishing and aquaculture sector for their lost income and for the additional costs due to the market disruption caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war and its they arise as a result of impacts on the supply chain of fishery and aquaculture products. During aquaculture production, starting from 2022, the prices of feed, energy and other materials and services have risen to such an extent that they threaten the economic sustainability of domestic freshwater fish production.

This is how the grant amount can be calculated

The basis for the calculation of the subsidy scheme – accepted by the European Commission – is the recent increase in the price of feed, because in the cost structure of aquaculture production, feed represents the largest weight among the individual items, 30-60% depending on the production system and technology. In the case of intensive farms, the compensation support is calculated by multiplying the amount of fish produced in 2022 (tons) and the increase in feed costs per ton. Producers who can be proven to have produced fish in 2022 are eligible for assistance. In pond farms, fish production takes place in a three-year cycle, therefore those producers are entitled to compensation support who carried out feeding in a verifiable manner in 2020, 2021, or 2022, as well as had a working pond area in 2022, Zsolt Feldman pointed out.