Hungarian food products in Sweden

Sweden is four and a half times bigger than Hungary but its population is about the same. Almost 70 percent of Sweden is covered by forest, therefore only 7.5 percent of the land is used for agricultural production (in Hungary this proportion is 58 percent). Agriculture’s contribution to the GDP is 1.7 percent. Sweden is an importer of food products but the country can produce barley, wheat, sugar, meat and dairy products. Mainly Hungarian fruits and vegetables – in both fresh and processed form, meat and meat products, and wines are exported to Sweden.

Since the population’s reproduction rate is only 0.81 percent, Sweden needs to import workers from abroad. The country is very popular among migrants and refugees, thanks the high quality of life it can offer. At the moment more than one third of Sweden’s population are of foreign origin. There are also quite few Hungarians living in Sweden.

Industry is the engine of the Swedish economy: in 2016 the industry’s growth rate exceeded 4.2 percent. Industry’s contribution to the GDP is 34.2 percent and services are responsible for 64 percent. 86 percent of the active population work in services, 12 percent are in the industry and only 2 percent earn a living in agriculture. In 2016 the unemployment rate was rather high at 6.9 percent and the level of inflation was 0.8 percent. Sweden’s export amounts to USD 147.3 billion and import is worth USD 134.9 billion.

Since 2009 Hungarian export to Sweden has been growing more dynamically than our import from the Nordic country. In the first ten months of 2016 our export increased by 11.5 percent and the trade surplus grew 5 percent. While in the same period Hungary’s agri-food export improved by only 2 percent, to Sweden we exported almost 12 percent more.

The most important categories in our Swedish export are meat and meat products, dairy products, vegetable and fruit products, highly processed foods and drinks, and wine. In the first ten months of 2016 Hungary’s livestock export to Sweden grew by 72 percent, from EUR 70,000 to EUR 120,000; our live fish export was up 40 percent. We sold 42 percent more meat, meat products and slaughter by-products in the Swedish market – export’s value increased from EUR 364,000 to EUR 518,000.

We sold EUR 1.2 million worth of dairy products in Sweden. Hungary’s fresh and frozen vegetable export was around EUR 4-5 million. Our canned vegetable export augmented by 20 percent and valued at EUR 5.5 million. Hungarian wines were sold in the value of EUR 2.3 million in Sweden – our wine export was up 60 percent.