Increasing fruit prices

The dry weather of the recent weeks reduces the horticultural production, so rising prices can be expected this year. Purchasers and processing plants have to deal with the threatening bankruptcy.

Since the EU accession, horticultural industry in Hungary has improved only partly – said Szabó József, the president of FruitVeb (Hungarian Fruit-Vegetable Marketing Organization). Over the past five years, the exports of the previous period had an annual level of around 800 thousand tons, while imports increased 507 thousand tonnes to 680 thousand tons last year. While in the domestic fruit and vegatable business, the share of food chains increases unstoppable. Due to the low prices of the competing traders, only a small profit remain at the producers. Many producers have indicated that due to the dry waether, production will be worse which can cause problems to the processors due to the high prices. Labor force is a significant problem too. The industry has a 50 million work days need per year.