Hungary: 83% of citizens support the EU's Nature Restoration Law

Most Hungarians support EU Nature Restoration Law, even more so than the Dutch

The Hungarian Ornithological and Nature Conservation Society (MME) has recently published a report on the level of support for EU regulations on nature restoration. A recent survey showed that at least three out of four citizens support the EU Nature Restoration Law in several of the countries whose governments did not support the passing of the act. The survey was conducted in the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Sweden, and the results are representative.

Interestingly, Hungarians support the Nature Restoration Law much more than the Dutch do. The highest percentage of support was recorded in Italy, (85% supported the act’s adoption), followed by Hungary (83%), Poland (72%), Finland (70%), and then the Netherlands and Sweden (both 69%). The overall mean was 75%.

Respondents also had to pick two statements out of five which most represented their views (including “I don’t know”).

In Hungary, 53% of the respondents believed that “nature and biodiversity decline in the EU will have negative long-term effects on people, farming and the economy.” For the Netherlands, this percentage was somewhat lower, 51%, the overall mean was 55%. The other very popular statement was, “the decline of biodiversity in the EU must be tackled urgently by bringing nature back and restoring ecosystems,” 58% of Hungarians supported this statement, while only 48% of the Dutch did, with a mean 53% across the countries.

14% of both the Hungarians and the Dutch agreed that “nature and biodiversity decline will not have any negative effect on people, farming, and the economy.” The lowest level of support was given to the statement “it would be too expensive and harm the economy to protect and restore nature in the EU.” Only 12% of respondents supported this across the board, in Hungary, the figure was 10%, in the Netherlands, 14%.

Rising fertilizer sales amidst declining profits due to lower prices

Agrárágazat.hu reported this week on the current situation in the fertilizer market in Hungary. In Q1, 2024, the amount of fertilizer sold in the country drastically increased, domestic distributors sold 522,000 tons of product. This is  a 48% y-o-y increase, from 354,000 tons in 2023. However, due to the decrease in prices, sales profits actually decreased. In Q1, fertilizer prices were on average 43,6% lower than in the same period in 2023. Due to the price decrease, the net revenue from fertilizer sales decreased by €65 million to just under €187.2 million.

The portal also highlights that the fertilizer market is very concentrated. The ten largest distributors sold 89% of the total fertilizer volume. In comparison, in the market of agricultural machinery, the top ten companies dominate 70% of the market.

May rains offer reprieve for crops

Last weekend, significant rainfall occurred across Hungary, reports Agrárszektor.hu. The amount of precipitation varied by region. However, the water supply of the near-surface topsoil improved nationwide, and the drought affecting summer crops has either ended or significantly eased, for now. In some places - in the middle of the Great Plains, and in North-West Hungary, in the Little Hungarian Plain – the precipitation reached 20 to 30 mm, while in some places – in Southern Transdanubia, in the parts of the Great Plain near the Southern border, it was only 1-3 mm. In large parts of the country, however, the thirty-day period remains precipitation-deficient, with less rainfall than the multiyear average. Fortunately, the layers deeper than 0.5 m retain their moisture from the winter.

Agrárszektor also reports that, winter crops are two to three weeks ahead in their development. Cereals and rapeseed crops have access to a satisfactory amount of moisture in the soil in most places during their water-demanding growth phases. For sunflower and maize crops, the rain arrived at the last moment in many areas, as they have been developing under drought conditions in most parts of the country. Early fruits, such as strawberries and cherries, benefited from the sunny and dry weather in the first half of May, aiding their ripening process. However, more moisture wouldn't would have been beneficial for the growth of the fruits.

Guest workers might be needed in the Hungarian food industry

Agrárszektor.hu recently interviewed Dr. Gyöngyi Kántor, HR director of the Master Good group. Agriculture and food production in Hungary faces various issues, including the fragmentation of family farms, and low land and labor productivity compared to Western Europe. Farms that can reliably sustain a family have remained viable as those families will always maintain them out of a sense of identity and ownership. However, the expert believes that agriculture needs to be a viable and enticing sector for young people, and it needs to shift from the production of low-added-value commodities to high-added-value food products.

Györgyi Kántor added that although there was already a labor shortage, in the past years the expanding automotive industry in North-East Hungary has drawn in a lot of the available workforce. The Master Good group is now employing foreign guest workers, added Dr. Kántor, as they are “unable to get the needed amount of workers from the Hungarian market.”

Spinach “unjustly neglected” in Hungary, says expert

István Varga, head of the open field horticulture division of the National Chamber of Agriculture (NAK) told the portal Infostart.hu that spinach, which is grown both for industrial and commercial purposes in Hungary, “should be more often on dinner tables”.

In Hungary, spinach is grown on a little over 540 hectares, and according to data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH), 12,000 tons were harvested last year. "Open-field cultivation can be seamlessly integrated into various crop rotations, similarly to green peas, as it is harvested relatively quickly, since the growing period for spinach is between 70 and 110 days," he told the portal.

"In industrial production, there is summer spinach, which is sown between August 25 and the first part of September. Its late fall harvest is acceptable both for industry and for the produce market, and it can even be carried out in open fields. This was common in many rural areas, and even in the 1950s and 1960s, spinach was cultivated on large areas this way," the expert pointed out for Infostart.

Invasive pest ravages gardens

The news portal 24.hu reported this week on the damages that the invasive Portuguese slug (Ario vulgaris) wreaks in Hungary. The slug species is invasive, it was first identified in Hungary in 1985, and it most likely arrived in commercial shipments, reported Ágnes Turóci, malacologist and member of the HUN-REN Agricultural Science Research Center Plant Protection Institute.

According to the experts, wherever the animal appears in large numbers, it devours everything in a very short time. The damage it wreaks is substantive; its spread, unstoppable; no measure of defense can stand in its path of destruction. And it seems that, this year, the conditions are particularly favorable for the Portuguese slug, which means that in some places, an even more severe invasion than before may occur.

Climate change and warmer winters have made the environment more favorable for the invasive slugs. Ágnes Turóci emphasizes that the hatching success of the animal is most optimal at 10-15°C. Therefore, the last year’s mild winter and this year’s early spring had two important consequences: more individuals survived the winter, resulting in a higher initial number for reproduction; and the individuals emerged earlier, starting their life cycle sooner, which means that several generations could be born by the end of the fall.