Investment and Exports Are Fueling the Food Industry

The production value of the Hungarian food industry reached HUF 6,500 billion (EUR 15.9 billion) last year, to which exports made a huge contribution, as the Hungarian food industry operates with an export quota of 45 percent, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in Budapest on Thursday.

Péter Szijjártó reported at the announcement of Hungerit Zrt.’s investment that the Hungarian food company will build a new, automated poultry processing plant in Szentes (southeastern Hungary) from HUF 35 billion (EUR 85 million). The state is supporting this project with HUF 9 billion (EUR 22 million), helping to create 50 new jobs and double the capacity of the chicken plant.

We expect the investment in Szentes to significantly improve Hungerit’s export performance, and through it the export performance of the Hungarian food industry,”

he said.

In his speech, the politician stressed that the government considers the food industry, which currently employs 145,000 people, as a strategically important sector, and 287 major investments worth HUF 1,400 billion (EUR 3.4 billion) have been made in the sector over the past ten years, creating nine thousand jobs.

He explained that

five years ago, the sector’s production value was HUF 3,800 billion (EUR 9.3 billion), but last year it reached HUF 6,500 billion (EUR 15.9 billion).

“Exports have played a huge role in all this, as the Hungarian food industry has a 45 percent export share,” he said.

Péter Szijjártó also touched on the difficulties of recent years, underlining that the world economy had faced serious crises that had led to a dramatic drop in investment, with Europe being one of the biggest losers. “Greenfield investment has fallen by eight percent worldwide. At the same time, in Europe the figure is 26 percent,” he recalled.

Nevertheless, Hungary experienced the second most successful year in its economic history in terms of investment promotion last year, the minister continued. “We were able to conclude agreements on investments totaling over 10 billion euros, meaning 18,500 new jobs for Hungary in the near future,” said the politician.

Hungarian companies have never made as many investments in one year as they did last year.

Never before have we agreed with 23 Hungarian companies to carry out a major investment,” he stressed.

“This also proves that the objective of continuing to focus Hungarian economic policy on supporting investment by Hungarian companies is a sensible one,” the minister  concluded.

Via MTI, Featured image: Pixabay