Recession-proof solutions at the AGÓRA conference

Eszter Benedek 
managing director
Magyar Termék

More than 150 trademark users sent their representatives to Hungarian Product Nonprofit Kft.’s 8th Agóra conference in Esztergom. Managing director Eszter Benedek welcomed participants and told: they believe that sharing knowledge can make food producers and retailers more successful even in these hard times. She informed that the number of trademark bearing products increased from 4,500 in 2021 to 5,000 by 2022 – these are made by 220 companies instead of the former 200.

Ministry of Agriculture: Hungarian retail chains have proved their worth

Márton Nobilis
state secretary
Ministry of Agriculture

State secretary Márton Nobilis underlined in his presentation that Hungarian retail chains had showed during the pandemic that they can operate safely even when times are hard. Hungarian enterprises and the Hungarian Food Chain Safety office (Nébih) also contributed to this success. The ministry would like to speed up the growth of the food industry and to make every segment recession-proof. Total revenues of the food industry are above HUF 4,000 billion and profits have multiplied.

Eszter Benedek guided state secretary Márton Nobilis through the trademark bearing products at the conference

Dávid Hollósi
managing director
MKB Bank, Takarékbank
agricultural and food division

Dávid Hollósi, managing director of MKB Bank and Takarékbank’s agricultural and food division stressed that the inflation is here to stay, and prices will continue to rise. In 70% food prices depend on the price of fossil fuels, which have skyrocketed 25-400% since January 2022. Mr Hollósi forecasts the food price increase to peak in the autumn of 2022. He told that food will be expensive, but there will be no shortage.

Labour market, economical energy use and e-commerce

Imre Tüzes
business development director
Profession.hu

Imre Tüzes, business development director of Profession.hu spoke about the Hungarian labour market contracting by approximately 50,000 people every year. At the same time there are about 500,000 Hungarians working abroad. Companies need to compete for good workers in this situation.

Anita Balogh-Fazekas
key account manager
InFend Energy

Anita Balogh-Fazekas, key account manager of InFend Energy Kft. talked about protection from the rising energy prices. She revealed that they had signed a cooperation agreement with Hungarian Product Nonprofit Kft., offering energy market related support to trademark users.

Dávid Csaba Szórát
retail account and development lead
Wolt Magyarország

Dávid Csaba Szórát, retail account and development lead at Wolt Magyarország Kft. shared the latest trends in online retail, and he made a promotional cooperation offer to manufacturers.

The participants of the first roundtable discussion were Csaba Antal (Pek-Snack), Krisztián Kovács (Sofidel Hungary), Zoltán Noszlopy (CBA) and Tünde Turcsán (GfK Hungária). They discussed the pricing problems, rising raw material and energy costs and price cap related issues. In the second roundtable discussion Márk Maczelka (SPAR Magyarország), Mátyás Simon (Simon Gyümölcs), Péter Szappanos (Pápai Hús), Attila Sallai (Naszálytej Zrt.) and Réka Szöllősi (food policy analyst) talked about the most important tasks in climate protection and sustainability.

Hungarian Product award winners with Eszter Benedek and Dávid Hollósi, who handed over the special prize awarded by Takarékcsoport

This year’s Hungarian Product award winners

Trade magazin was also awarded at this year’s Agóra conference. Zsuzsanna Hermann, managing director and editor-in-chief took over the award from Eszter Benedek for the outstanding media support provided for Hungarian Product trademarks

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