Agriculture & Food Industry “In Big Trouble”, Says Hungary’s Socialist Party

  • 22 Feb 2023 3:05 PM
  • Hungary Matters
Agriculture & Food Industry “In Big Trouble”, Says Hungary’s Socialist Party
The opposition Socialist Party said on Tuesday that Hungary’s agricultural sector suffered from over-centralisation and failing small and medium-sized farms, while agricultural development projects “deferred during the past 10 years” should be implemented to keep production going.

The government has over-centralised the sector, leaving small and medium-sized farms in “high and dry” and Hungary’s agriculture and food industry “in big trouble”, Socialist deputy chairman Gábor Harangozó told an press conference streamed on Facebook, commenting on a part of a recent keynote speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The agricultural production of all the other countries in the region is better organised and supplies cheaper food to residents, he insisted.

Rather than a modern system based on cooperation, Hungarian agriculture operates amid “feudal conditions with oversized model farms” benefitting “family and friends” close to the government, while “all others work as day labourers”.

Harangozó accused the government of failing to promote irrigation or water retention projects, the lack of which makes it “increasingly difficult to grow a number of crops”.

He also slammed planned battery plant projects in draught-hit areas as “developments requiring startling amounts of water”, which would make the situation “even worse” for farmers.

MTI Photo: Tamás Sóki

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