Hungary Newsflash Week 15

Weekly Briefing

• Avian influenza: On April 13, highly pathogenic Avian influenza has been identified by the National Food Chain Safety Office (NÉBIH) at a turkey breeding farm in Hajdú-Bihar County, in Eastern Hungary. The authorities have started the culling of the full livestock population of almost 12 thousand. Previously, Avian influenza had reappeared in Hungary in January and authorites had hoped that the country could be declared free of the disease by May.
• Agro digitalization: The Ministry of Agriculture, the food chain safety authorities and the University of Veterinary Science signed a memorandum for future cooperation on the digital transitioning of veterinary science, food chain supervision and agriculture in Hungary. A part of this agreement will be the new Digital Agriculture and Digital Food Industry strategies, which will focus on data-driven development in domestic agro sectors.
• Based on the latest data by OTP Bank, while the COVID-19 pandemic affected agricultural and food production, and livestock diseases also caused a problem, the Hungarian agroeconomy finished the year with average figures. Based on current data, Hungary’s total agricultural production was 4.9% higher than in 2019, mostly due to price increases. Producer prices were 7.2% higher in 2020. The total production output volume, after a 0.4% rise in 2019, declined by 2.2% last year. The average income of agricultural entrepreneurs was 17% higher in 2020 than the year before.
• Pig sector: State Secretary Norbert Erdős of the Ministry of Agriculture announced that in the cycle of the Rural Development Plan, 142 applications have been approved for animal farm subsidies worth €192.1 million in total until the end of March. In April, the period of application will start for grants for small-sized pig farms. The total budgetary envelope of these grants will be €83.5 million.

Substantially increased subsidies in the next seven-year budgetary period

State Secretary for international affairs Dávid Bencsik of the Ministry of Agriculture has stated that while between the 2014-2020 period, the Rural Development program had operated with a budget of €3.937 billion, in the coming period, the government will make available an envelope of €11.878 billion for agricultural and food industry subsidies out of CAP sources.

President of the Baranya county chapter of the National Chamber of Agriculture (NAK) József Rittlinger commented that various subsidy categories will have an increased budget in the coming period. The envelope for the subsidies for horticultural processing plants will more than double, from €83.6 million to €189.4 billion, the subsidy for small agricultural manufacturers will increase from €6.9 million to €90 million, which will fund 7500 small producers. Furthermore, there will be subsidies for herb production with an envelope of €41.8 million and €55.7 billion will go to mushroom production. €36.2 billion will go to subsidies aiding small producers in market access. In total, €724.3 million will go to development subsidies for food production factories.

Animal Protection Council founded

Minister for Agriculture István Nagy has announced the launch of the new National Animal Protection Council. The new council will be headed by a president appointed by the Minister for Agriculture, it will have a co-president and eleven members. The new body will  have a variety of duties: it be in charge of monitoring and discussing the latest developments and questions in animal protection; formulate expert opinions on proposed legislation in connection with animal protection and animal welfare; survey and investigate the practical applications of animal welfare regulations; proposes new and amendment legislation; advises on education and builds relationships with its international peers.