Hungary’s 2023 walnut season is off to a good start with an average season expected says Máté Tömösváry, from the co-operative Balaton-ker-Tész: “We have just started the walnuts harvesting and expect an average season with apples and some pears being harvested too.”
He says this year’s milder summer across Hungary was good, but the early spring frost hurt the apricots. “During the summer the weather was good, it was very hot at times as usual, but we had some rains also, it was not a big problem. We had a problem with the frost in April. The frost and cold caused huge damage in the apricots. Off course during the cherry season rain was not good, it does not want too much rain. The apple season in our region is average. We have a lot of hectares of walnuts planted. While around 40-60 hectares are not productive there’s another 300 hectares on what looks likely to be an average season. We are waiting to see what will happen in the markets.”
The co-operative represents about 160 producers across the Transdanubia region in Hungary. Tömösváry says they are happy to have closed and end a very hard apricot season, with lower revenue due to the damage. “Our revenue dropped a bit this year. In 2022 apricots had a record year. This year after the frost damage apricots had critically low volumes, that’s why our company income was lower. Our key markets of Austria and Germany looked good all season, these markets were full. We had some volume and it was not what we expected. For the start of the walnut season things are looking better in these markets. We cannot yet tell that prices are getting higher than last year, because Hungary’s currency is weaker.”
He says they attended Fruit Attraction in Madrid last week for the second time and found interested buyers. “Last year was the first time we went to Madrid. It looks like there is more potential buyers. Berlin is always great, but we always look for some new ways and find that Fruit Attraction was good. While we did not have a stand, we are looking to maybe have a stand next year,” concludes Tömösváry.
For more information:
Máté Tömösváry
Balaton-ker-Tész Co-operative
Tel: +36204227200
Email: [email protected]
www.balatonkertesz-hu