2023 was a terrible year for the Hungarian meat industry

By: Trademagazin Date: 2024. 03. 25. 12:35

The year 2023 was full of challenges for the Hungarian meat industry, in which many factors played a role. The year was often compared to the biblical ten plagues, which shook the sector in both domestic and export markets.

Tamás Éder, social president of the Hungarian Meat Industry Association, mentioned in his annual evaluation that this was the most difficult year for the sector in the last 15 years. A 15.7% drop was registered in the field of meat processing and preservation, while a 14.4% drop was recorded in the production of meat products, which raised serious problems.

“The great lesson of the past decades is that meat is not the same as sweets or drinks. If someone likes it better, they can go for Swiss chocolate and French cognac, if it’s more bitter, they’ll settle for Hungarian. In the case of meat, however, when people in Hungary live worse, then price-centric shopping dominates even more, and in such cases standard, medium-quality imported products always gain ground. Imported products are because they are slightly cheaper. When a Hungarian consumer buys raw meat for the weekend stir-fry, or “basic quality” hot dogs, Paris buys, then the foreign product is cheaper due to the efficiency of scale. This may not even be understandable at first.”

– said Éder.