Hungary is committed to domestic and global food security

By: STA Date: 2023. 02. 24. 10:30

The coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine, climate change, Brussels sanctions, high energy costs and inflation pose serious obstacles to the availability of food, especially in developing countries, stressed Oszkár Ökrös, deputy state secretary for international relations, together with Pilar, the development director of the OECD. In his consultation with Garido.

(Photo: Pixabay)

The Deputy State Secretary explained that the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture also contributes to the improvement of global food security at the global level through numerous bilateral and multilateral programs. The ministry’s development activities continue to focus on promoting localism, above all through the education of small producers, the development of small farms, the preservation of biodiversity and the sharing of Hungarian agricultural know-how. The future international development objectives of the Ministry of Agriculture include increasing the number of projects implemented within the multilateral framework with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The negotiators agreed that mitigating the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on food security is currently the most pressing challenge

Oszkár Ökrös emphasized that Hungary actively supports the operation of the solidarity corridors established by the European Commission to accelerate the export of Ukrainian agricultural goods. We still consider the role of solidarity corridors important, but at the same time, attention must be paid to the original goal of the initiative, to ensure that Ukrainian agricultural products reach the traditional destination countries without causing market disruptions in the EU member states – pointed out the deputy state secretary.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of an event presenting the results of an expert review organized by Hungary’s OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). As a result of our country’s obligation to be a member of the OECD DAC, the expert review took place in 2022, in the framework of which the review group visited Hungary and held consultations with relevant government actors and key partners involved in the development and implementation of the development policy, as well as representatives of the relevant civil sphere.

AM

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