The Hungarian milk industry is expected to be one of the winners of the recent milk quotas changes, secretary of state for Agricultural Economy György Czerván said.
European Union milk quotas were abolished on 31 March this year. The withdrawal of milk quotas means that from 1st of April there are now no limits to milk production within the EU.
György Czerván pointed out that the majority of EU member states had so far not used their full milk quotas, and Hungary too has only made use of some 75 to 80 per cent of this opportunity.
The secretary of state stressed that although the termination of the milk quota brings about new challenges, it also represents a new opportunity for the Hungarian milk sector.
“It is important that we have a fundamentally calculable funding system, and such a system is already at our disposal until 2020,“ he pointed out.
Czerván also emphasised that the processing industry requires further development, to which end some 300 billion forints (€1 billion) are available from rural development resources within the 2015 to 2020 period.
Chairman of the Hungarian Milk Marketing Board Tibor Mélykúti said that a new element of the government reduction of utility charges could be a decrease of the VAT level of milk products to five per cent, adding that the Board had already recommended such a reduction during the course of the year. Hungarian consumers are extremely price-sensitive, and more than half of Hungarian milk product is consumed in the form of milk itself, he pointed out.
The Chairman of the Board expressed his hope that some of the 300 billion forints available for the development of the food industry until 2020 will also be put towards further developing the milk sector. The inter-disciplinary organisation also hopes to spend some 150-180 million forints-a-year on milk marketing from its own resources, he indicated.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article written by László Juhász.
