Hungary: Increasing figures in the pig and poultry sectors

Poland has overtaken Hungary in corn production

No one previously expected Poland to outperform Hungary in corn production – reported Agrárszektor.hu recently.

This year, Poland produced approximately 7.65-8.2 million tons of corn on a little over one million hectares of farmland. Poland can now consistently expect an annual corn yield exceeding 7 million tons. This surpasses Hungary's production, highlighting how the changed climate has affected the feasibility of crops.

Hungary’s corn yield this year was 5 million tons. In good years, 6-8 million tons of corn can be expected in Hungary, and in 2014, the yield was 9.4 million tons. However, in the past years, droughts and hot summers damaged corn crops. In 2022, the year of the historic European drought, Hungary’s corn yield was 2.8 million tons. Average yields were between 5.4-5.6 tons per hectare in Hungary, which means that for many formers, corn production did not even break even. In contrast, one of the rising crops in Hungary is soy. We have recently reported on how soy was both profitable, and performed relatively well in this year’s harvest.

You can find out more about cereal farming in Poland here and here’s an overview of Polish cereal exports.

The number of people employed in agriculture industry steadily declines

Agrárágazat.hu has recently reported on the state of employment in the agriculture industry based on the November quick report on national employment figures by the Central Statistical Office (KSH) as well as KSH’s ten-year timescale data on employment in various industries.

In Hungary, approximately 4.7 million people were employed in October this year, which is a decline of 27 thousand compared to the same time last year. In agriculture, the highest number in the last 10 years was recorded in the autumn of 2017, when nearly 230 thousand people were employed in the industry. This was 60 thousand more than 10 years earlier, in 2007.

Since then, the number of employees in the industry has been declining. The portal reports that in Q3, 192 thousand people were employed in agriculture in the country. Moreover, labor used by the industry equaled 213 thousand annual work units (AWU), which shows a decrease of 40% in ten years, the portal highlights.

Agrárágazat also reports that this decline is accelerating, and is driven by a decrease in labor utilization in individual farms, where the AWUs were 21% lower than in 2020. Meanwhile, there was a 3.2% increase in (large) farms.

This shows that the share of individual farms decreased to 61%, while that of economic organizations increased to 39%. This is a significant change compared to the data from 2013, when the share of individual farms was still 74% and that of economic organizations was 26%.

Poorer performance this year in livestock sectors: Turkey, sheep, goats

Agrárágazat.hu also reported on the state of various livestock sectors recently. According to the news portal, the number of turkeys in Hungary is decreasing, based on this year’s Q3 figures.

Data from KSH shows that the turkey population has been steadily decreasing in recent years. In December 2023, their number was close to 2 million, which represents a significant 21% decrease compared to December 2022. Similarly to other poultry farmers, the number of turkey farmers also decreased, by a substantial 31%.

The 3.8 million animals sent to slaughterhouses is only 1.1% more than by the fall of 2023, but the turkey sector’s share was only 2% within all of the poultry.

Meanwhile, based on data from the Research Insititute of Agricultural Economics (AKI), the portal reports that the number of slaughtered sheep decreased by 6% in the first three quarters of 2024 compared to 2023, to 33 thousand heads.

The sheep population was 912 thousand heads on June 1, 2024, which is a decrease of 3,700 compared to the previous year (-0.4%). More than 5,300 ewes were slaughtered. The current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) cycle, which runs until 2027, offers several new subsidies with more entitlements than before to support grass-based, extensive livestock farming, reports the portal, and yet, the sheep sector still continues to shrink.

The goat population has also been declining. It  fell by 23.7% in 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. The number of goats was 31 thousand heads last year, which is about one-third of what it was at the turn of the millennium in Hungary.

Pig sector and poultry showing increasing figures

Agrárszektor.hu also reported on the state of the meat industry based on the latest data by AKI. While the number of slaughtered cattle decreased, the figures for pigs and poultry increased.

In the first three quarters of the year, 3.5 million pigs were slaughtered, which is 229 thousand more than in January-September 2023 (an increase of 6.9%).

Poultry slaughter also increased significantly: in Q1-13, 2024, a total of 180 million birds were sent to slaughterhouses, which is 8.8% more than in the same period the previous year. The total live weight of the poultry processed during this period was 549 thousand tons, while their cleaned, dressed weight amounted to 411,500 tons.

Grocery trade showing slight uptick compared to 2023

Based on a new report by KSH published in the beginning of December, in October, the volume of retail sales increased by 4.0% (raw data), or by 3.6% (adjusted), compared to the same period last year. Sales in food and food-type mixed stores grew by 4.8%, while non-food retail sales increased by 3.3%. The volume of mail order and internet retail, which accounts for 8.2% of total retail sales, increased by 1.3%.

In October, 49% of the retail sales in Hungary were realized in food and food-type mixed stores, 36% in non-food retail, and 15% in fuel sales at gas stations.

From January to October, the adjusted volume of sales was 2.8% higher than in the same period last year. In food and food-type mixed retail, sales increased by 3.9%, in non-food retail by 2.4%, and in fuel retail by 0.5%.