Hungarian agriculture enriches foreign companies?

Instead of subsidising foreign battery plants, the government should support Hungary’s agriculture sector, Dávid Dócs, the deputy leader of opposition party Mi Hazánk, said on Saturday.

In the past two years, Hungarian agriculture has been hit by “the drought of the century”, while the price of materials has skyrocketed and purchase prices have halved, in some cases falling to one-third, Dócs told a press conference. Dócs noted that even in a year with a record harvest, many farmers were finishing the year with a loss.

He called it “astounding” the Fidesz-led government had chosen to subsidise foreign battery plants to the tune of billions of forints while leaving Hungarian farmers impoverished. Dócs said battery factories brought no benefit to Hungarians, since the investors and the technologies were foreign and the plants themselves staffed by foreign guest workers. Furthermore, products were exported abroad and the profits enriched foreign companies, he added.