Hungary Newsflash Week 51

The friendly AI in your neighborhood grocery store

The Hungarian company MOHAnet Zrt. has developed a new, integrated smart system for food sector producers that can register consumption data in groceries and provide real time feedback on product availability to producers. As grocery stores and supermarkets can often run low on certain popular products, this can lead to potential income losses for producers who could have restocked the stores in time. For example, based on data from the new system, beverage coolers are regularly only 75% full, and other shelves stocked with sought-after products can quickly become empty as well.

The new system is fully integrated, uses mobile sensory data gathered through automated dispersal systems, which it processes using artificial intelligence solutions to project consumption trends and inform producers on logistical needs. The system can even measure small, light products which are only a few millimeters thick, e.g. instant soup packages. The machine is now being tested in a pilot phase with certain popular products, e.g. vacuum packed meat. The manufacturers believe that in its full capacity, the AI-supported smart system will be able to increase product sales by 20-25%.

The future is here: University announces smart eggs

This week, Szent István University (SZIE) together with Blue Seven Group Zrt. has announced the creation of a new type of chicken egg which has a high concentration of vitamin B9, reports the portal Agrárszektor. The announcement states that since this vitamin is important for biological processes like cytogenesis, the new “smart” chicken egg will be an especially useful dietary supplement for pregnant women, particularly in the first trimester of pregnancy – And that it also contains other important substances like iron, zink, choline, omega-3 fatty acids, and conjugated linoleic acids.

Furthermore, the new egg will be used as a component in SALAdMI, a new vegetarian salami currently being developed at the university. The University also states that the chickens that lay the new “smart egg” are fed with another proprietary innovation, an animal feed also researched and developed by SZIE. The managing rector of the university, Professor Csaba Gyuricza highlighted that these new innovations prove that cooperation between research institutions and private companies can produce outstanding quality, high added-value products.

Hungary’s inflation is second-highest in EU

While the aggregated average inflation level of the EU is converging to 0%, three of the four Visegrád countries, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary still have much higher inflation figures based on the latest data from November. While eleven member states show negative figures, the aggregate inflation of the EU is currently 0.2%. The highest inflation was observed in Poland, with a figure of 3.7%, while the second place is shared by Hungary and the Czech Republic with an inflation rate of 2.8%. (Hungary’s core inflation was 3.9%) The Hungarian figure is currently decreasing. The annual inflation showed a sharp uptick in July, by August it reached 3.8% while it started slowing with a figure of 3.4% in September. Core inflation also decreased from 4.7% to 4% by the end of the summer and the domestic price increase, together with food inflation, is further slowing down. One major driver behind the continuing trend of decreasing inflation is the price drop of crude oil, and in turn, automotive fuel.

Proudly presenting: Farminar 2

Following the successful Farminar on Smart Soil Improvement in the summer, the agriculture office of the Netherlands Embassy in Hungary is now happy to announce the next Farminar event, which will focus on precision agriculture in Hungary.

While precision agriculture is often associated with large-scale farming, governmental programs and investment-heavy, extensive smart solution overhauls, in reality, precision methods are available to small-scale farms and family small holds – Which will need them more and more as they face an increasingly changing environment, a growingly mercurial and unpredictable climate, droughts and chaotic precipitation patterns. How can we create the necessary information channels? How can we equip farmers with the latest knowledge? How do family farms take up precision agriculture, how can they finance it and where do they start? Find out more at the Farminar on January 12! Click here for more information.