Rural Development is Key to Satisfying Demand for Quality Food

In his speech at the third Rural Conference, Balázs Győrffy, President of the National Chamber of Agriculture, said that the demand for food in general, including high quality food, is increasing, and rural development is critical in this respect. Several ministers spoke at the conference, including Tibor Navracsics, Minister for Rural Development, who announced that the policy of regional development would be placed on new pillars with the upcoming Regional Development Law, as recently reported by Hungary Today.

The government hopes that Hungary will resist the urbanization occuring around the world and that the countryside will develop in a way that younger generations will want to live there. This seemed to be the general sentiment during the Rural Conference 2023, Világgazdaság reports.

The President of the National Chamber of Agriculture, Balázs Győrffy, said in his speech that the situation of the Hungarian countryside can and should be described not only by economic indicators, but also by what we think about what it is like to live in the countryside and what image people have of it. He pointed out that

as a result of the rural edition of home purchase subsidies (CSOK), there are now hardly any houses for sale, while the development can also be measured by the noticeable increase in demand for rural tourism.

He said that more and more people are paying attention to what they eat and what they put on the family table. As the world’s population grows, more food will be needed, and demand for high quality food will also grow, so we need to strive to produce it with the shortest possible supply chain. However, this is contradicted by certain domestic trends, he said, explaining that since the end of the communist regime in 1989, one million hectares have been taken out of production.

“This gives us an important task to avoid preferring greenfield investments in the future,” concluded the President, adding that support in Hungary is much higher than among our competitors, but even this is not enough due to the chaotic economic situation caused by climate change, wars, and energy prices.

He stressed that the situation of Hungarian farmers has been worsened not only by drought damage, but also by the recent reopening of roads to Ukrainian grain. Based on statistics, 70 million tons were sent, but 30 million of these got stuck en route and flooded into eastern central Europe, causing producer prices to plummet.

Via Világgazdaság, Featured image: Facebook/Győrffy Balázs