Certification procedures for pork and poultry products have successfully come to a close, Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas, who continued his trip to China with a visit to the Special Administrative Region on Friday, announced from Hong Kong.

“26 pork and 36 poultry producers and processing plants can now export their products to Hong Kong and we are working on Hungarian beef receiving an import licence as soon as possible, followed by lamb, goat and game meat”, the Minister told Hungarian news agency MTI in a telephone interview.

“We would like to export more premium quality products to this city, which has 7 million inhabitants and is visited by an additional 50 million tourists each year, but which practically speaking has no food industry and accordingly imports everything”, Minister Fazekas noted, adding that Hungarian wines are already well known in Hong Kong, with exports in the region of 100 thousand bottles-a-year.

Transport may be expensive, but consumer interest and demand is so high that it is worth forging new paths to this market and catching up to others who have already established a firm presence in one of the world’s most important financial and economic centres, he declared.

“Hungary, which is a trade and logistics hub for Hong Kong businesses, is by far the city’s most important partner within the Central European region”, the Minister of Agriculture emphasised, adding that the current talks had reinforced Hungary’s already excellent relationship with city leaders and the city itself, where the Hungarian Consulate was recently reopened.

On Friday, Sándor Fazekas met with Secretary for Food and Health Ko WIng-man and with Vivian Lau, head of the Environmental Hygiene Department responsible for issuing import licences. As part of his program in China, the Minister will also be meeting with businesspeople who have “excelled in building Hong-Kong – Hungarian relations”.

(MTI)