The Hungarian agriculture and food industry may face a rebirth

(Photo: AM/István Fekete)

According to István Nagy, he urged cooperation and common thinking for the sake of agriculture, because the daily lives of those working in it are largely determined by circumstances that cannot be influenced or predicted by Hungary. In the world market, everything is connected to everything else, Europe’s internal market is upset, Brussels does not ensure its protection, but at the same time it binds production to strict rules, he added.

The head of the ministry emphasized that the government closed the border to Ukrainian grain in the interests of Hungarian farmers

However, the cheap products from there reach the EU, where the liberalization of the market favors cheap mass products anyway, worsening the chances of Hungarian exports. Honey, for example, comes in huge quantities from Asia and South America, and the multinational interests producing in Ukraine can access the European market without the controllability of their products meeting the regulations here, they can use any means in farming, and because of this they can produce cheaper. Consumers also demand low prices, but they would also expect the absence of chemicals and the downsizing of large-scale animal husbandry, but it is very difficult to meet these at the same time, he added. According to István Nagy, Hungary cannot compete by taking over the market based on mass production, and must also decide whether to respond to the challenges with chemicals or biological solutions. The minister believes that the development of seed production can be one of the most important breaking points, and he singled out the development of the irrigation infrastructure as one of the tasks of the following years. The resources are available for this, and water management must serve agricultural and ecological goals at the same time, so that not only food production is more secure, but also the world is more livable – he emphasized.

MTI