Hungary enjoyed an increase in overall fruit production last year but adverse weather conditions resulted in the country importing more than it exported for the third year running.
The country’s output for 2006 is estimated at 800,000-850,000 tonnes, some 10 per cent up on the previous year’s reports, but only 20 per cent of the total is exported.
Viktor Medina, project manager for FruitVeB, the Hungarian organisation for Fruit and Vegetables, said the foreign trade balance for fresh and frozen vegetables has remained positive for several years.
For example, while vegetable exports in 2004 totalled 185,000 tonnes, imports accounted for 115,000t.
Vegetable production in 2006 is expected to reach 1.6 million tonnes. This is around 14 per cent more than 2005 and 16 per cent less than 2004.
“The slightly lower production volume is a result of a decline in the amount of sweet corn and tomatoes sold to industry customers.”
He added that, in 2005, exports of processed fruit and vegetables totalled 425,000t, while imports amounted to 134,000t.
