The Government signed a strategic agreement with dairy producer Alföldi Tej in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
At the signing ceremony, Parliamentary State Secretary László Szabó declared: the Hungarian government signed the 60th strategic agreement with Alfödi Tej, a group owned by more than 100 Hungarian milk producers. The Parliamentary State Secretary also said that those companies that had already signed strategic agreements with the Government provide jobs to 186 000 people and have created 13 500 new jobs since signing the agreements.
The raw materials processed by Hungarian dairies are one of the world’s highest quality products, which is indicative of the fact that there is still potential in the Hungarian food industry, Mr. Szabó said.
Also, he said that in the next five years, the food industry will be provided with a development fund worth HUF 300 billion from which HUF 200 billion will be allocated from rural development funds and HUF 100 billion from the Economic Development and Innovation Operation Programme.
He added that Alföldi Tej has realized investments worth HUF 6 billion over the past ten years: the company contributes to 26 per cent of the country’s whole milk production.
Executive Director of Alföldi Tej Tibor Mélykuti said that the agreement – which is regarded as an acknowledgement of their 10-year work – is of high significance for the Hungarian production group. The dairy producer group was founded in 2003 with 23 members in Hajdú-Bihar county, which two years later bought a dairy under liquidation in Székesfehérvár. Monthly revenues totalled HUF 500 million then have risen to HUF 3 billion by now.
Also, Mr. Mélykuti said it was this January that Alföldi Tej and FrieslandCampina signed an agreement on Alföldi Tej’s acquisition of FrieslandCampina’s dairy plant – with a processing capacity of 60 000 litres of milk daily – in Debrecen.
At present, the company has 700 employees and aims at further developing the two factories in Debrecen and Székesfehérvár, and expanding their capacities, the Executive Director said. He added that the company provides jobs to 10 thousand people indirectly.
He also mentioned that the agreement contains social responsibilities, which Alföldi Tej fully complies with: among others, they consider it their task to make milk popular among the population; they endorse sports events and they are ready to display photos of missing children on their milk cartons.
According to the press release, with over 300 million kilograms of milk annually, Alföldi Tej is the biggest milk purchaser of the country.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
