Competitive farming must be the answer to agricultural challenges

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István Jakab spoke about: it is of utmost importance that agricultural subsidies reach their destination on time, quickly, accurately, and professionally, and that Hungarian farmers develop a good strategy, because the challenges are huge. Therefore, very organized production must be continued, and a production structure is needed that helps farmers’ competitiveness – he added. Ukraine’s plan for accelerated EU accession and its associated membership will create a new situation if the borders are opened and a significant amount of agricultural raw materials and finished products flow into the EU. This is compounded by the volume of goods arriving under the Mercosur agreement, he said. He indicated that if it were to be implemented, this would not only have a serious impact on the competitiveness, markets and food economy of EU agriculture, but would also pose a danger to citizens if they were flooded with products produced under different conditions and rules from non-EU states. That is why it is a question of paramount importance what dangers the planned change in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) strategy would entail, he underlined. He mentioned as an example from the drafts that the EU would not pay support above 100 thousand euros, and that farmers who have reached retirement age and are not full-time workers would not be able to apply for such funds. In relation to the latter, he noted that the proportion of farmers over 65 is currently 54 percent, and by the time the measure comes into force, it would reach 60 percent.

Payment of subsidies must be accelerated

József Viski, the State Secretary responsible for agricultural and rural development subsidies at the Ministry of Agriculture (MA), called it important to simplify the control and administration tasks of agricultural subsidies and to accelerate payments. He highlighted that in the current, 7-year EU budget cycle, they have to decide on 5,400 billion forints of subsidies, part of which is area-based subsidies affecting nearly 150,000 farmers, while about 3,300 billion forints are investment and development resources. He pointed out that the use of 5,400 billion forints was made possible by the fact that, although Hungary received significantly less money from the EU, the government was the only one of the member state cabinets to decide on the highest possible national co-financing of 80 percent.

Negotiations are ongoing

András Cseh Tibor, Secretary General of MAGOSZ and Vice President of NAK, said that they have been negotiating with the V4 plus countries in recent days, and their position is the same in completely rejecting the European Commission’s proposal to withdraw EU agricultural subsidies and allow for much more intensive imports from outside the EU than before. He indicated that they agreed to hold a joint farmers’ demonstration with the participation of 10,000 farmers in the city center of Brussels, which is preparing for the Christmas market, on December 18, the day of the meeting of EU heads of state and government.

MTI