Hungary: The Situation Isn’t Peachy

Hungary has perfect natural conditions for the cultivation of fruit orchards and the growing of sweet, ripe fruits. However, climate change made springs chaotic in the country, with unpredictable, mercurial weather and terrible frosts that can strike at any time up until May, damaging budding fruit trees. We have recently reported on this spring’s losses here.

However, recent figures show that the nation’s peach orchards were hit especially hard by the spring frosts. Stakeholders are now reporting that this year’s harvest yields will be 80% lower than the average.

While there is an increasing need for the boosting of climate-resilience in Hungary’s peach orchards, another issue is that most of them are aged and the production methods are outdated and inefficient. All in all, Hungarian peach producers will soon be in dire need of new, optimized methods and technologies that can arm farmers against the growing challenges of climate change.

In an interview published by the agro portal Magro.hu, Dr. Béla Mártonffy, department head in charge of horticulture and horticultural supply chains at the National Chamber of Agriculture (NAK), stated that peach production can be very productive in Hungary – But orchards need the perfect varieties and production methods. Since climate change is a very serious factor in this day and age, Hungarian farmers are in need of highly climate-resistant varieties today.

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The Budapest-Belgrade team brings you curated newsflashes every Friday afternoon. These are quick, digestible, to-the-point briefings about all the latest developments in the Serbian and Hungarian agro sectors.

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In this week’s Hungary Newsflash, you can find out more about EU CAP funding figures, a new fruit pest species, how Hungarian truffles are succeeding, continuing fruit price increase trends, beekeper support, water research innovation, and nature conservation efforts.