“Europe’s largest maize processing company is capable of producing higher added value products thanks to continuous development and technological modernisation. This is in harmony with the Government’s and the Ministry’s vision that the Hungarian food sector should produce healthy, safe, natural, GMO-free and competitive products”, the Minster of Agriculture said at the foundation stone laying ceremony for Hungrana Ltd’s latest biomass power plant in Szabadegyháza.
At the professional conference held in conjunction with the foundation stone laying ceremony, Sándor Fazekas stressed that the company plans for the long term, as proven by the developments it realises year after year. “In addition to development, protecting the environment is also important to us, and the company uses only Hungarian, GMO-free raw materials, produced bioethanol for motor vehicles and is also expanding the biomass boiler it inaugurated in 2012”, he added.
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The Minster told the press that Hungrana’s existing biomass power plant burns 60 thousand tons of hay and 12-15 thousand tons of sunflower husk pellets annually, which provides two-thirds of its steam and heat requirements. The latest 1.5bn forint (EUR 48M) investment will enable the company to produce 100% of its steam and heat requirements.
Mr. Fazekas highlighted the fact that in 1990, Hungrana only had the capacity to process 400 tons of maize, but by today has increased this capacity to 3500 tons. The company’s market position is continuously improving and they are currently Europe’s largest maize processing company, while they have maintained a determining role in the Hungary food industry for over a hundred years. The Minister also spoke about the fact that - in harmony with the government’s vision - the company produced competitive and high quality food ingredients that are processed at a higher level of added value. Increasing the level of processing requires developments, which the Government supports using EU funding within the framework of Economic Development and Innovation Operative Programme (GINOP) and Food Industry Operative Programme (ÉLIP) tenders, he said.
At his speech at the “Maize - the gold of the present and future?” trade conference, CEO of Hungrana Ltd. Zoltán Reng pointed out that a quarter of all Hungarian farmland is devoted to the cultivation of maize, while half of the total maize yield is exported without being processed. He mentioned that for a long time maize was regarded as an animal feed crop, despite the fact that after extracting the starch it produces an excellent protein concentrate, not to mention the fact that it is also capable of replacing imported soy that could contain GMOs. He also said that maize can be used to produce sweets, starch and alcohol for the food industry. Mr. Reng told the press that the company had invested 225 million euros over the past ten years and currently process 1.15 million tons of maize every year.
General Director of the National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre (NAIK) Csaba Gyuricza declared that the latest investment by Hungrana focuses attention on the importance and raison d’etre of non-food producing agriculture, which is needed in Hungary. As he explained, arable crop production in Hungary may be carried out on a total of 4.5 million hectares, which is capable of producing food and raw ingredients for some 18-20 million people. He states that progress can be made in this respect via the horticulture and animal husbandry sectors, and the development of irrigation, to serve a total of even 25-30 million people. On 600-800 hectares the environment doesn’t favour the traditional production of food ingredients and alternatives are required there such as the cultivation of crops that are produced expressly for energy purposes.
(MTI/Ministry of Agriculture Press Office)
