Hungarian farmers can’t duck EU constraints

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Published time: August 02, 2010 03:27
Edited time: August 03, 2010 05:10

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Conflict, EU, Markets

The rich and fertile lands of Hungary have long made it an enviable source for food production.

But farmers there say that they've slowly being starved of business since joining the EU.

At one of the biggest bird farms in Hungary, more than 10,000 geese and ducks bring quite a profit for the owner, Ferenc Varga. Liver, goose down and duck eggs are in high demand. He says his land is perfect for this kind of business.

“Unlike countries in Western Europe and the US, we in Hungary keep our birds in open spaces,” Varga told RT. “The climate and environment allows that. That’s why they develop well and produce ecologically pure meat and eggs.”

Less than a decade ago, Hungarian ducks were sold across Western Europe and the CIS. But now the owner of this farm has to seek other markets – including China and Japan – as it has become very hard for him to sell on his own continent.

He says that ever since his country became a member of the EU, he had to reduce his stock almost two-fold.

“We lost the Russian market – our main buyer – in favor of the EU market. But it turned out that Europe, apart from France, wasn’t interested in our products. This seriously affected the demand and farm owners had to secure their stock, because according to new regulations keeping it was too costly.”

Before the collapse of the socialist regime in 1990, Hungary was one of Europe’s breadbaskets. Its agricultural sector was a strong part of the economy and countries of the post-Soviet space actively imported Hungarian products. In 2004 the country was accepted into the EU, but instead of greener pastures which EU membership promised, Hungarian farming suffered a serious blow.

“The EU didn’t want to improve the situation in the Hungarian market,” said Gyula Thurmer from Hungary’s Labor Communist party. “They really wanted to get the Hungarian market. And they have done it. They don’t need our production, they produce enough butter, meat and wine. They want the Hungarian people to buy their products. But it is bad for us, because it is like being a colony.”

Brussels has a special program to develop regional agriculture which promises a greater income for farmers but which experts say has brought little results. Local producers have been losing more than a third of their revenue every year since 2004 compared to the 1990s. And now even their own market is practically closed to them.

“Foreign supermarkets flooded the Hungarian market with cheap goods, which are being far better promoted than domestic products,” claimed Atilla Rojash, chairman of Hungary’s agricultural association. “And according to EU regulations, we cannot urge these supermarkets to sell only our products. The only thing we have managed to do to avoid a complete destruction of the local market is to push through a legislation which obliges these shops to have at least 30 percent of domestic production on their shelves.”

Hungary has a moratorium on purchases of farmland by foreigners. Farmers say this is the only thing which keeps their agricultural sector from being completely overrun. The ban expires in April next year and it’s unclear whether the EU will allow Budapest to extend it.

Comments (3)

Ivan 02.08.2010 22:52

The same situation is in Croatia and Serbia - western powers force you to accept EU agenda and to peg your own currency to Euro.And you have to overestimate your own local currency thus encouraging importing of everything including the products we can produce ourselves (food) from the West. The very first thing western bakers grabbed here in Croatia (and elsewhere in eastern Europe) are BANKS. Once state owned banks in socialism which supported local industry and agriculture now in the hands of the new western owners have been encouraging imports of western products and consumption of everything from the West. Results? Results in Croatia are the same as the results in Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Greece... and throughout eastern Europe - countries are collapsing, external debts are huuuuge, domestic industrial and agriculture production has been virtually destroyed. Farmers are being destroyed and cannot pay the credits for machinery and land since they do not have even local market due huuuge imports of food from western Europe. And these loans are given in euros by the western banks, but now our local currency is under heavy pressure due to huuuge external debt thus euro credits will soon become impossible to pay. And now farmers are losing land and western bakers are taking our farms, our industries (what is left of it)... just like western bankers are taking our houses and apartments. If your country does not support this western agenda then they find an excuse to bomb you (just like they bombed Serbia in 1999 using a false pretext of protecting ethnic minorities) and install a puppet government which is complacent. This is hitlerism! The only way to liberate ourselves will be by bloody revolutions!

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MEJanssen 02.08.2010 17:41

America isn't getting richer from globalization. We've lost industry and jobs over the past 20 years, and now markets since the financial crisis hit. Wages have been stagnant for decades, unless you are looking at Wall Street wheeler-dealers or bank presidents. The people in America who get rich are the globalists who happen to be here, not necessarily the average citizen. The middle class is shrinking fast in this country. It is ironic that we formed and sold the IMF, World Bank, and WTO, when all that globalization is going to kill us. The unions are already as good as dead.

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Artyom 02.08.2010 05:23

Globalization will destroy many people's lives and benefit greatly the megacorporations and politicians of the world institutions. Funny most of them are based in America. IMF, World Bank, WTO, and many others bring out real problems for the real people like this farmer. The news almost never covers their suffering and only talks about some economic value that comes, yet we never see this value, but watch as each nations top 10% get richer and richer.

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