Late last Friday, the Hungarian government put into place the import restrictions on Ukrainian agriculture products that it had promised that it would reintroduce should the Commission not extend the EU’s own import restriction policy.
Agroberichtenbuitenland.nl reports that with this, Hungary has put back into force the ban on the import of products on the 24-item import restriction list that it had unilaterally introduced in the spring and later, following the EU’s import restrictions, it repealed in the summer.
Following the introduction of the Hungarian import restrictions and similar measures put into place by Poland and Slovakia, Ukraine filed a WTO trade complaint.
Among the products that fall under the measure are vegetables (raw, steamed, or boiled in water), frozen and vegetables (excluding sugared) prepared or preserved without vinegar or acetic acid (excluding tomatoes and edible mushrooms), not frozen.
In Hungary, the number of farms under one hectare have decreased by half between 2020 and 2023, while the number of farms exceeding a thousand hectares have decreased by 20%. The structure of the agriculture industry is also shifting as the share of crop growers is increasing, currently resting at 73%.
Source: agroberichtenbuitenland.nl