Magazine: Hungarian or Domestic – what is the difference?

Dr. Szűcs Róbert Sándor
főiskolai adjunktus
Szolnoki Főiskola

A couple of years back consumers were attracted by exotic products, but these days they are much more drawn to Hungarian products or those produced in Hungary. In 2012 a decree of the Ministry for Rural Development – 74/2012. (VII. 25.) VM – defined Hungarian and domestic (domestically produced) products. Hungarian product: 100 percent of ingredients used are of Hungarian origin and it is produced in Hungary. Domestic product: more than 50 percent of ingredients are of Hungarian origin and it is produced in Hungary. Can consumers differentiate between these two based on their marking? A survey was conducted to answer this question (with 1,150 participants between the ages of 14 and 70+, between 28 September 2013 and 10 November 2013). Results: 23.3 percent of consumers couldn’t differentiate at all between Hungarian and domestic products by examining their marking. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 marks the worst and 5 marks the best performance) consumers’ average score was 2.42 as regards their knowledge on Hungarian and domestic products – very poor performance indeed. It seems that two years since the decree’s entering into force weren’t enough for consumers to learn the difference between these products. Perhaps the survey should be repeated one year from now and if the situation mentioned above doesn’t improve, the introduction of new, more differentiating markings needs to be considered.