Mid-term prospects of the poultry sector in Hungary

Nyárs, Levente

Keywords: poultry production, market, prospects

Due to Hungary’s geographical location the costs of procuring sources of protein are higher and poultry exports are also more expensive, because of transport and higher heating and cooling expenses, than say in the Netherlands or Brazil. The Hungarian poultry sector cannot avoid the challenges of globalisation. Large capacity, cheap labour and cheap fodder all represent great advantages in price competition. Hungarian raw material production is made more difficult by the fact that the majority of farmers do not have land at their disposal; in other words, they are unable to produce fodder, while disposal of the manure produced also presents a problem. Domestic production of chickens for slaughter will be around 230,000 tonnes in the medium term. Due to high fodder prices and the expenses associated with “non-productive” investments, no short-term improvement can be expected in the profitability of domestic production of chickens for slaughter. For this reason, stagnation in production is to be expected. Hungary may become a net importer of poultry by 2013, due to weak price competitiveness.

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