Any action to protect the interests of the dairy industry and to help supply Hungarian consumers with quality domestic milk enjoys the fullest support of the Ministry of Agriculture (AM), the Minister of State for Agriculture of AM said, referring to the demonstration organised in the beginning of the week at the conference “For the effectiveness of milk production” (Tejtermelés eredményességéért).

At the event Zsolt Feldman underlined that extensive cooperation has unfolded in recent years between milk producers, milk processors, retail trade and the government. Consequently, domestic consumers can now purchase milk originating from Hungarian producers to a decisive extent in the supermarkets. A certain supermarket chain has almost cancelled out the achievements of this cooperation by its irresponsible action against which the milk producer community took action rightly. As he said, the Ministry of Agriculture will conduct all necessary official proceedings on the matter.

The Minister of State deemed the prospects of the dairy industry favourable, quoting the expansion of market opportunities in advanced economies. He explained that Hungarian agriculture experienced dynamic development over the past years; its output has exceeded HUF 2 700 billion. Milk processing contributes 10 percent of food industry; its production value was HUF 294 billion and its prospects are also favourable. According to the expectations, European milk production will expand by 8 percent by 2027 compared to 2017, and the purchase price may increase by 16 percent over the same period.

In the opinion of the Minister of State, the above mean that it is worth working in the dairy sector; it is worth investing energy, money and professional knowledge there. At the same time, he called attention to the fact that labour shortage and the fulfilment of the new environmental protection requirements may imply difficulties for farmers.

Mr Feldman said dairy herds shrunk after Hungary’s accession to the European Union, then they started to increase again, by around 10 percent since 2010, and the milk yield has expanded at the same rate, to 8 300 l on average in 2017.

He highlighted that the Hungarian milk industry is highly professional also in international comparison; dairy cows and the relevant processing capacity are the most concentrated in Hungary after the Czech Republic, since three quarters of milk processing is done by the eight biggest companies.

Mr Feldman also said that milk consumption in Hungary corresponds to the EU average, but butter consumption is one fifth and cheese consumption one third of that. As for the foreign trade of this branch, he explained that the country imported milk and milk products of a total value of HUF 120 billion, and exports totalled HUF 100 billion last year. He underlined that raw milk export keeps decreasing, a positive fact, because it is part of the relevant strategy that milk produced in Hungary should be processed domestically.

(MTI/AM Press Office)