Hungary: 2024 might just be an excellent year for wine

A great year for wine

While the long, hot summer caused many problems for arable farming, vineyards benefited greatly from the sunny and dry weather.

Due to the lack of rainfall and the heat, grapes have developed to be smallersmaller. However, many varieties are characterized by a high sugar content and excellent taste and aroma. Quantities are smaller this year, however, the quality of grapes are potentially outstanding.

A winemaker from the Balaton Uplands region whom we interviewed, told us that one of the issues is labor shortage. While grapes have matured and ripened earlier, this meant that for some varieties, harvest started as much as a month earlier, in August. “That means that even if you start early, at dawn, at 6 AM, it’s already 20°C, and the temperature climbs over 30°C by 11 AM. And there are fewer people who are willing to work in that heat so you have shorter hours and fewer hands, that leads to some losses,” the expert told Agroberichten Buitenland. The winemaker added that investing in machinery and automation can help make up for the lack of labor.

Agrárszektor.hu also reported on the harvest. A winemaker from the Szekszárd region told the portal that the situation is somewhat different with red wines. This year, many red varieties have too much tannin, which may result in rough, harsh, and heavy wines, which means that much will depend on the knowledge and expertise of each winemaker. In red wine producing regions, strong, characteristic, but more alcohol-rich, heavy wines are expected, which connoisseurs appreciate, but are harder to sell to average consumers.

Winemakers interviewed by Agrárszektor added that local varieties have demonstrated their strengths, holding their own even in the hot weather. Local red varieties also have less tannin and astringent substances.

In some areas, the harvest quantity of grapes might be as low as 30-40% less this year, however, the quality is generally very high, making up for some of the losses. Whether the higher quality will also make up for lost profits due to the lower volume is not certain however, since input costs remain to be high.

Expert says soy is the solution to the changed climate

Agrárszektor.hu has recently interviewed an expert on the rise of soy cultivation in Hungary. Zoltán Bene, general manager of the company Karintia Kft. has told the portal that growers in Hungary are facing many difficultires.

Since the beginning of the War in Ukraine, one of the greatest challenges for farmers has been marketability. The grain coming from the east poses serious competition. The second major difficulty is profitability. “Last year, due to increased input prices and halved crop prices, we were unable to achieve meaningful income from either mazie or sunflower,” said the expert. The third significant challenge is improving the ability to adapt to increasingly extreme and severe weather conditions.

Mr. Bene said that soy is a way forward. The EU needs 30 million tons of soy annually, while it only produces 3 million tons. Soybeans are either not replaceable or only very difficult to replace in the feed industry, and since the EU needs ten times as much of it as it produces, there is no risk of overproduction.

The expert also said that it can better adapt, since, according to an American study, soybeans have a heat tolerance that is 5°C higher than that of sunflowers and corn.

Climate: Hungary starts resembling Southern Europe, new exotic crops are replacing historic ones

The portal Üzletem.hu reported on the changing climate this week. At a competition for students supported by the Hungarian University for Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE), rector Dr. Csaba Gyuricza has said, "Agriculture must respond to climate change, which fundamentally shapes our present and even more so our future, with immediate and complete structural change."

In his presentation, the rector has explained that Hungary’s current climate is now more similar to Southern Europe in the 1950s, than its native Carpathian Basin region used to be. Changes are needed both in the types of crops grown and in the breeds of animals raised, said the rector. Dr. Gyuricza added that while in Hungary, there used to be thousands of hectares of raspberry plantations, now the cultivation area of the fruit is under 100 hectares. However, there are new crops which were unimaginable in the past. The portal highlights that more and more figs and even certain breeds of banana are now grown in Hungary.

KSH: Consumer prices up by 3.4% in August

The Central Statistical Office (KSH) has published its August overview of consumer price changes. On average, consumer prices were 3.4% higher y-o-y last month. The price increase of food was 2.4%. Out of the food category, the price increases were 27.7% for flour, 10.6% for chocolate and cocoa, 8.0% for meals at restaurants, 6.7% for fruit and vegetable juices, 5.5% for edible oil, 4.8% for milk, 4.4% for non-alcoholic beverages and 3.4% for pork. The price of alcoholic beverages and tobacco also rose, by 3.9%.

Some prices decreased. The price of pasta products decreased by 8.1%, that of eggs by 7.9%, milk product prices by 5.7%, the price of sugar by 4.6% and that of bread by 1.7%.

On the m-o-m timescale, prices did not change much on average. Some food prices increased: butter cost 2.3% more, the increase for pastries was 1.9%, coffee 1.8%, milk products 0.6% and milk was 0.5% more expensive. Eggs were 2.3% cheaper in August than July, pasta products decreased in price by 1.7%, other meat preparations by 1.4% and seasonal food items (potatoes, fresh vegetables and fresh domestic and tropical fruits in total) cost 1.2% less for consumers.

Invasive species plague forestry

The portal Magyarmezogazdasag.hu has recently reported on two invasive species that forestry professionals have faced recently in Hungary. One is a fungus called Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, responsible for the tree disease ash dieback. It was first reported in Europe in Poland in 1992, and in Hungary it was first documented in 2008.

The pathogen primarily infects the common ash and the Hungarian ash, but it can also affect the American ash. However, the flowering ash is not susceptible to it. The disease is dangerous for Hungarian forests. Weakened trees are also colonized by other fungi and insect species, further diminishing the survival prospects of the ash trees. Nationwide, ash dieback is on the rise, leading to mass devastation in ash tree populations. Currently there is no known treatment for the disease other than identifying resistant specimens and selectively breeding them. Another invasive threat to ash trees is the pest emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), an Asian jewel beetle, which has reached Kiev, Ukraine in its westward spread, and is now 600 km east of the Hungarian border.

Not only ash trees are in danger, oaks are vulnerable to the oak lace bug (Corythucha arcuate), a North American lace bug. This pest was first found in Europe in Italy in 2000. The portal writes that while the adults are capable of flight, the bug is a very efficient “hitchhiker,” with human traffic (by road and railway) aiding its spread. It is now present in 27 European and 3 Asian countries. In Hungary, it was first found in May 2013 at the Szarvas Arboretum.

By 2019, it had appeared in every county of Hungary and is becoming increasingly common in the oak forests of the Bükk Mountains. Both the adult bugs and nymphs feed on the underside of leaves. All native oak species in Hungary can serve as host plants for the bug, which means that nearly 600 thousand hectares of oak forests in the country, and at least 35 million hectares across Europe, are at risk. Unfortunately, the natural predators and pathogens native to Europe do not control the populations of the oak lace bug. Chemical control is at best possible in gardens and parks, but not in forests.