Hungarian potato will be out of the shops after January
National Potato Association: Hungarian potato will be out of the shops after January. Skyrocketing energy prices and the plummeting exchange rate of the forint have pushed up the costs significantly.
“Hungarian potato will be hard to find in the shops after January.”
Éva Kulich, the press officer of the National Potato Association, told 444.hu in a survey on the potato market published on Friday. Kulich pointed out that already in August, after the harvesting season, the shortage was evident, mainly due to the drought. In fact, this year has been very bad for potato in several European regions, wrote Telex.hu.
The price cap was not a solution for potato
The spokesman estimates that we eat an average of 26 kilos of potato a year. The 144,000 tonnes of potato produced in Hungary this year, or 8 million people, can cover only two-thirds of consumption, even without public catering and restaurant needs.
Hungary has not been self-sufficient when it comes to potato for years; and the area of potato sown and the number of producers have been declining for years. The price cap on it made more difficult the situation for producers. The government imposed it at the beginning of November, and unlike other products, it applies not only to a specific variety but to all types and presentations of table potato, from baking to salad ones, from two-kilo bags to 10-kilo sacks.
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According to Éva Kulich, the price cap does not help the situation; shops cannot raise their prices but growers understandably want to recover at least the rising cost of production for their product, and they also need to prepare for the next sowing season.
Moreover, fixing the price of the product at the 30 September level was not a real solution because of the inflation, as the official price only reduced the price by 8-10 percent. This may vary from store to store, as the price frozen on 9 November was different.
Skyrocketing energy prices
As is generally the case for food products, potato production is very energy consuming and uses up a lot of pesticides and fertilisers. Hungary imports the seeds from abroad, at a price of euros, of course. Then there is watering, harvesting, sorting and cleaning. 90 percent of Hungarian potato are delivered to the shops washed – done by machines, if we are talking about industrial quantities. In addition, the products have to be packed, transported and stored in special conditions.
Skyrocketing energy prices and the plummeting exchange rate of the forint have pushed up these costs significantly.
Despite the fact that the weak forint and high fuel prices would make it logical to boost domestic production, supermarkets are trying to reduce the shortfall by importing as cheaply as possible. According to Kulich, the price cap leaves supermarkets with two options: either cut quality or cut profits. And since the second option rarely plays out, that leaves lower quality foreign imports, but there may end up being a shortage of potato.
Source: telex.hu
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“Spud” Orban – nickname often granted to oversize rotund individuals, that our Prime Minister has “grown” or developed into.
Potatoes – in the English usage of the word often referred to as a Spud.
What are the Orban Government doing in respect to this APPALLING situation?
Its just LAUGHABLE that such a situation on a major source of human food need & consumption, grown in the dirt, the soil of Hungarian & “other” lands, this is ALLOWED to HAPPEN.
The Irish Potato famine of commencement 1845 – 1852 is this going to be re-inacted in Hungary?
NOTHING would surprise me what is going is COMING out – that adds humongous challenges to our daily lives in Hungary.
The ZENITH – peek of ALL the massive problems BUILDING in Hungary – just DEVASTATING on millions of Hungarians.
Hungarians we sit back be like LEMMINGS just follow on – that is leading to a capitulation of the Hungary we know existed in better times, letting this Orban Government dictate our way of life, we are destined to disintegrate as a country, back to times that are a resemblance of post 1945-1989.
Membership on-going in the European Union is factually under IMMENSE pressure to be maintained, through the ATTITUDE exercised through the Orban Government.
Nothing is getting cheaper in Hungary.
Medical/Medicines under treat of supply.
Food shortages in Supermarkets.
Inflation continues to rise.
Cost of our Daily lives continues to RISE.
Education – in a complete SHAMBLES.
Economically & Financially we as a country in a declining MESS.
Real Estate Property & Construction Industry – carnage happening.
The LIST goes on & on and we continue in our millions to be LEMMINGS just following going along with it.
Solidarity of OPPOSTION Political Partys and of the people in millions of Hungary – who look in the mirror and with HONESTY ask themselves the QUESTION(S):
– the DECLINE of Hungary, the DOUBT of my and my Family and Hungary’s FUTURE – what is GOING to STOP it?
– What can I and millions of other Hungarian citizens DO to STOP the collapse of Hungary that we are ENGULFED in, through the PATHS we as a country have been taken down, over the past 12 nearing 13 years – by this Victor Orban led Government of Hungary?
– What can I do to arrest this devastating capitulation of my Hungary?
– What future can I see – or want – if POSSIBLE for the FUTURE my Families future my Grand-children’s FUTURE in Hungary?
Hungary – if we want – IF – any retainment of DEMOCRACY in our country – we should have acted yesterday.
The massive damage on-going through US not in SOLIDARITY fighting to retain DEMOCRACY – we may be in the Political form of Governmental Rule – proceeding FULLY into a DICTATORSHIP – that we know is evidenced – as does the European Union, Great Britain & Ireland, the United States of America and the Global World, in the Orban “Creed” or Catechism – of his political ideas and philosophy – his and his Fidesz Party vision for the FUTURE of Hungary.
“The farther you can look back,
the farther forward you can see.”
Hungary – we are on the CUSP – the lemmings on proceeding to the cliff edge following into a ending into a DARKENING place.
What’s STILL to HAPPEN in the IMMEDIATE in Hungary – Petrifying.