István Nagy: The interests of Hungarian farmers come first, we will continue to maintain the import ban on Ukrainian agricultural products

(Photo: AM/István Fekete)

At the meeting, the Minister spoke about how climate change and drought pose a serious challenge not only in our country, but also to our northeastern neighbor, but according to preliminary estimates, we can expect a better harvest in both Hungary and Ukraine. The average domestic harvest of winter wheat exceeded 5.5 tons and producers harvested 5.4 million tons. Due to the war, energy sources and input materials are more expensive, and crop prices are low, which is why farmers have to deal with serious challenges, he added. István Nagy also drew attention to the fact that according to the Brussels-Kiev pact, agricultural exports of Ukrainian products could increase to four to five times the pre-war level, which would ruin Hungarian farmers and European agriculture. Ukrainian producers do not have to meet the very strict EU veterinary and phytosanitary standards either. This puts EU producers at a significant competitive disadvantage, they lose their markets and their livelihood, which we cannot allow, he emphasized.

The minister emphasized that our northeastern neighbor will not export corn and wheat to our country until Hungary requests it

In order to protect the interests of farmers, we will continue to maintain the import ban on Ukrainian agricultural products. However, transit will continue to be permitted, as before, under the existing strict controls. The EU-Mercosur trade agreement was discussed at the meeting, which in its current form would have a number of negative effects on the agriculture of the European Union, including Hungary. We do not support the conclusion of the agreement in its current form, as it does not provide adequate protection for EU and Hungarian producers. István Nagy stated that the interests of Hungarian farmers always come first for the government, therefore we will protect their livelihood by all possible means.

AM