The value of Hungary's fruit and vegetable production in 2016 has provisionally been estimated at 280 billion HUF (approximately 906.07 million Euro) and is up by 5 to 7 percent compared to the previous year, as reported by the Hungarian Fruit and Vegetable Interprofessional Organisation and Marketing Board (FruitVeB) last Thursday. The total volume produced amounted to 2.766 million tonnes, which is considered average.
According to FruitVeB, last year's fruit production amounted to 850 thousand tonnes. Of this, 510 thousand tonnes corresponded to apples and about 85 thousand tonnes to cherries.
The acreage devoted to fruit-growing increased by 2-3 percent in 2016 compared to 2015. The crops expanding the most have been walnuts and elderberries and, to a lesser extent, apricots, sour cherries and cherries.
Meanwhile, the acreage devoted to open field vegetables has also increased, especially in the case of sweet corn, carrot and parsley. Other crops have either not changed or slightly decreased. The total harvested volume reached around 1.5 million tonnes.
Late last year, the situation was much better than in 2015 because of the favourable weather conditions recorded, so producers had both better yields and better quality.
As for greenhouse crops, there was an increase in the production volume and in the acreage devoted to cabbages and lettuce, while for peppers and tomatoes the acreage has not changed significantly, but due to modernization, the yields have continued to improve. Thus, the total volume of greenhouse products amounted to around 430 thousand tonnes in 2016 and was about 6 percent higher than in the previous year, as reported by FruitVeB.
Source: agronaplo.hu