HUNGARY - Situation of ecological agriculture in Hungary
Melinda Mezei and Zoltan Pap (PhD students of Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary)
Hungary is located in Central-Eastern Europe, in the Carpatian basin. Its climate is temperate with less precipitation, the average rainfall is 594 mm and the annual average temperature is 9.7º C.
Hungary has a great potential of plant production. The majority (about 70%) of the total area is used as agricultural field. The amount of arable lands is 4.5 million hectares. Although there are lots of pastures and meadows, animal husbandry is less important in the country.
Agriculture has old traditions in Hungary, mainly in the southern and eastern part of the country. The importance of the agricultural sector is decreasing, nowadays the 7-8% of the population works full time in agriculture and for another 4% it means supplementary income.
Organic agriculture was started in the beginning of ‘80s by forming a group from enthusiastic amateurs and farmers. This club was called Biokultúra, later it formed into Biokultúra Association, the most wide-spreaded, best known organic organization in Hungary. Nowadays there are more non-governmental organizations connected to organic movement such as
- Hungarian Federation of Organic Farming Associations
- Péter Sárközy Foundation
- Association of Hungarian Organic Farmers
- Only two certification bodies operate in Hungary:
- Biokontroll Hungária Kht. – registration number HU-ÖKO-01
- Hungária Ökogarancia Kft. – registration number HU-ÖKO-02
According to the latest data there are about 133000 hectares of certified organic field and 1583 certified producers/farmers in Hungary. Figure 13 illustrates the continuous growth of organic area.
Figure 13 Growth of organic area in Hungarz
Utilization of Hungarian organic lands can be seen on Figure 14. About 50% of the total area is used as arable land, pastures and meadows represent the second biggest amount.
Figure 14 Utilization of organic lands in 2004
This figure demonstrates the ratio of crops grown on organic fields. The high ratio of pastures and meadows derives from the land utilization. The most common crops in production are cereals (with winter wheat on the first place), they mean almost one quarter of all organic plant production. Fresh vegetables and fruits are about 2.2-2.5%.
Figure 15 The distribution of organic land areas according to the crops grown in 2004
Organic animal production
160 farms deal with animal production altogether with 12 254 animal units (500 kg). The distribution of livestock is shown in table 5. The most important animal is the cattle, especially the famous Hungarian Grey Cattle, which is absolutely suitable for organic purposes.
Animal species |
Animal units |
Poultry |
147,2 |
Buffalo |
327,4 |
Sheep |
2121,8 |
Goat |
252,8 |
Horse |
247,3 |
Pig |
703,5 |
Mule |
1,4 |
Cattle |
8419,4 |
Donkey |
32,8 |
Total |
12253,6 |
Table 5 Number of animal units according to animal species
Bee-keeping
Bee-keeping and honey production are quite important in Hungary, particularly in organic way. There are 169 inspected beekeepers. The most important data of bee-keeping are shown by table 6.
No. of bee-keepers |
No. of in conversion’ bee families |
No. of fully converted bee families |
Total no. of families |
169 |
910 |
13 374 |
14 284 |
Table 6 Number of inspected bee-keepers, bee families in 2003
Thank of the annual report of Biokontroll Kht. (they control the 95-96% of the certified areas) the data are considerably accurate.
Organic market of Hungary
About 5% of organic products are sold on the domestic market, mainly fresh vegetables and fruits, cheese and diary products and processed meat products. Organic bakery products, fresh meat, ready-to-eat food are rarer. The demand is increasing but not so many people can afford it. The domestic organic prices are very high compared to the salaries. The prices – depending on the type of crop – are higher by 40-200% than conventional prices.
Figure 16 Main exported products
Nowadays, in almost every big town have an organic market or a corner on the traditional town market. In Budapest there are three quite well-known and big organic markets, where consumers can purchase fresh organic food. Most of the super-, hipermarkets sell some kinds of organic food, mainly bakery and diary products, flours, eggs, but very rarely fruits and vegetables. There are many healthy shops where organic products can be bought.
The remaining 95% is exported. The main exported products are cereals, fodders, then beef, eggs, honey herbs. The majority of the products are exported to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Unfortunately, Hungary exports mainly raw materials, fresh products and imports processed products which activity should be changed in the near future for more income.
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financed by
European Commision
Dutch National Postcode Lottery
Ministry of National Education And Sport