General characteristics

Hungarian agriculture goes back for more than one thousand years. Agricultural production was characterised even centuries ago by the fact that besides meeting domestic demands, Hungary exported considerable amounts. The most important agricultural products of our country, mainly cattle, wheat and wine, have been exported to the markets of Western and Northern Europe since the Middle ages.
    Approximately 70% of the area of Hungary is suitable for cultivation. The country’s natural endowments, hours of sunshine, configurations of terrain and fertile soil, has meant good yields have been and still are being achieved in case of most of the arable crops. Owing to favourable endowments, the quality of the county’s fruits and vegetables are almost beyond compare.
    Due to natural and economic-geographical endowments (such as the nearness of large markets), the agriculture and food industry has become a major economic sector of the country. Taking into account the level of production, employment and export, the food industry plays a larger role in the Hungarian national economy than in any other country with similar economic development.
    Agriculture, food industry and forestry accounted for 10.7 % of Hungarian GDP in 1996 (table 1 and diagram 1). According to non-official calculations, agriobusiness in the wider sense, has about 15-18% share in the GDP., The relative importance of agriculture can also be seen from the fact that 8.5% of the working population were employed in this sector in 1997. Taking the food industry also into account, theis figure becomes 11.7%.
    As an average, the food industry contributed 20-25% of the export of the national economy in the years 1992-1997. The sector has a significant foreign trade surplus.

Agricultural area

The total cultivated area of the country was 6,195 million hectares in 1997. ThisIt is 11 thousand hectares more than in the previous year, but is 303 thousand hectares less than the average of the years 1986-1990. Arable lands makes up meant the 76% and pasture 19% of the total cultivated area. Gardens, orchards and vineyards occupyied the other 5% of the cultivated area.
    There was no significant change in the distribution of cultivation branches in 1997. Arable land, totalled 4,711 million hectares. The area of orchards, vineyards and pastures has not changed, but the area of gardens has grown by 11 thousand hectares (table 2 and diagram 2).

Land ownership

Due to privatisation and other transitions, private farmers has begun to play a larger role in land use. While in 1994, 56% of the total agricultural area of the country was cultivated by co-ooperatives, state enterprises and companies, this proportion dropped to 42% in 1997. Owing to members’ breaking away from co-operatives, the area cultivated by co-operatives has decreased by 30%, compared to 1994. More than half of the area ((58%) of the country was cultivated by private farmers in 1997. Almost the same proportion of agricultural products was produced by private farmers (table 3).

Agricultural production

The gross production of agriculture of 1997 has remained atin the level of the previous year (table 4 and diagram 3). The two main sectors of agriculture have undergone different changes. The volume of crop production and horticulture has increased by 2.5%, whereas the production in the livestock management has declined by 4.4% (diagram 4).
    The diverging changes of the two main sectors has been a feature throughout the years 1992-1997. The improvement inof crop production has been relatively stable, having grown at an annual average of 3%. Over the same period livestock production has shown large fluctuations, and fallen overall at an annual average of 3% (table 5).