Hungarian agricultural reforms drive 6.4% growth in farm exports, minister highlights key markets and increased funding

The Hungarian government’s agricultural and food industry reforms boosted farm export growth by 6.4 percent in the first half of the year, the agriculture minister said on Sunday.

Farm exports came to 8.17 billion euros in the first seven months of the year thanks to the development funds earmarked for the sector, up 494 million euros from the same period in the previous year, István Nagy said on Facebook, adding that food industry exports rose by 7 percent.

Hungary’s top five export markets in the first half were Germany, Italy, Romania, Austria and Poland, accounting for over 54 percent of farm exports, the minister said. He said the share of processed products among farm exports rose to 74.2 percent from 62 percent in the period, while the share of raw produce fell to 25.8 percent.

Hungary considers agriculture a strategic sector, and is the only European Union country to have raised its national co-financing threshold to the maximum 80 percent for farming subsidies, Nagy said, adding that this has tripled the funding available for rural development.

Over the last three years, Hungary has spent 400 billion forints (EUR 979.1m) on the development of livestock farms, more than 100 billion on the upgrade of horticultural facilities, close to 230 billion on the expansion of food industry capacities and 180 billion forints on advancing precision farming, Nagy said. The government has also disbursed more than 55 billion forints among small farmers, he added.

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