Hungary: Growers of this fruit will have a good year as Polish harvest falters

Sour cherry harvest to be bountiful

At a press conference at the Ministry of Agriculture, State Secretary Zsolt Feldman has stated that sour cherry farmers will have a good year due to favorable weather and a harvest that is expected to be excellent.

Domestically, 2,600 sour cherry producers cultivate the crop over an area of around 12 to 14 thousand hectares. The State Secretary also added that, foreign demand indicates that Hungarian sour cherries “have a future”, which is why the government’s orchard planting support scheme will continue. Producers can apply for support to plant traditional or organic orchards equipped with water-saving irrigation systems, to protect against weather risks, and to purchase tools necessary for the care of sour cherry trees.

Ferenc Takács, the vice president of the FruitVeB fruit and vegetable growers' alliance, estimated this year's yield to be 55-60 thousand tons. Ferenc Takács added that this does not exceed the average of the last 15-20 years, but in one of the main competitor countries, Poland, “at least half of the sour cherry crop was lost due to spring frosts”. Favorable weather remains important because sour cherries are vulnerable before harvest. The processing industry also faced challenges as the early ripening caused the first shipments to arrive at freezing and canning factories 2-3 weeks earlier than usual.

According to Ferenc Takács, nearly 10 thousand tons of sour cherries could be exported this year, and due to the limited supply, producers can hope for good purchase prices.

Food industry support schemes announced for processing sector

Agrárszektor.hu reported this week on the newly announced support schemes, as a part of Hungary’s Common Agriculture Policy Strategic Plan.

Two support programs have been announced: "Support for the Complex Development of Processing Plants" with a total budget of €375 million for larger, more complex projects; and "Support for the Development of Processing Plants" with a total budget of €125 million.

In the former, applicants can apply for support ranging from 200 million to 5 billion forints (€500,000 to €12.5 million), while in the latter, they can apply for support of up to 200 million forints (€500,000).

Zoltán Demeter, head of the agriculture business branch at the K&H Banking Group, told the portal that the subsidies were “eagerly anticipated,” and that companies will use these support programs  to make up for the investment gaps of recent years. Mr. Demeter told the portal that the most important investment priorities for companies are energy and labor efficiency, as well as projects aimed at market expansion and international market entry support.

The portal also reported on the fact that industry stakeholders see the current development programs as favoring large companies, and that primarily, it is the financially stronger and better-positioned companies that can truly think on a large scale, which are planning to fully realize the subsidies.

Maize needs water, badly – Just when the skies are clear

The news portal Agroinform.hu reported on Tuesday that maize plantations are right now in dire need of water, in their stage of development, just when the first heat wave of the summer of 2024 has arrived.

According to estimates, a single maize (corn) plant requires at least 30-50 liters of water during the growing season, the portal writes. This means that there should be between 240 and 400 liters of water available per square meter. The occurrence of water scarcity before the flowering period causes the growth of plants to slow down. However, if water scarcity occurs during flowering, it leads to uneven pollination.

Maize, formerly the leading arable crop of Hungary, is on a steady decline since the devastation of the 2022 European drought which crippled maize farming for a season, and led to the country having to import maize for the first time in living memory. This was a painful blow to Hungarian agriculture. By winter 2023, the area used for maize farming has fallen by 10-30%, and by 2023 the area used for winter wheat increased by 90 thousand hectares to a total of over 1 million hectares. Farmers are also looking for good replacement crops. One example is soybean, the total cultivation area of which is still less than one-tenth of the production area of maize, however just this year, this cultivation area increased by 26% in size.

Dangerous bee disease identified

This week, the news portal Agrárszektor.hu reported that in multiple communities near Szolnok, Eastern Hungary, the dangerous bee disease American foulbrood (AFB) was identified by beekeepers. Local authorities have issued a complete lockdown in the area, the transport of bees and the transportation of honey or beekeeping equipment is prohibited. The transportation of beehives within the affected area is prohibited, as is transporting bees into the area, and transporting outside bee products, items, or materials that can spread disease.

AFB is a fatal bacterial disease that affects honey bees. It is caused by the spore forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, and the disease, which affects honey bee broods is highly infectious.

Sheep slaughter figures decreasing

The Institute for Agriculture Economics (AKI) has recently published an overview of slaughterhouse trends in the first quarter of 2024. In Q1, the number of sheep slaughtered in domestic abattoirs decreased by 10%. More than 1,900 ewes were slaughtered, totaling 89 tons live weight. The sheep population was 907 thousand on December 1, 2023, which represents an increase of over 35 thousand sheep compared to the previous year (+4.1%). The number of breeding ewes in December 2023 (694 thousand) was virtually unchanged from the previous year.

This shows a declining trend, despite new subsidies, and increasing demand and prices, reports Agrárágazat.hu. The portal adds that in the current period of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) until 2027,  several new support schemes have been introduced which are aimed at extensive livestock farming, with more categories than before focusing on pasture-based systems. Despite these new subsidies, the declining trend in the sheep sector has not stopped yet.

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