Horticulture

Vegetable growing has a long traditional in Hungary. As vegetables are very labour-intensive products, they have played a very important role in the employment and income of the agricultural population. Compared to other branches, the proportion of land under horticulture is relatively small, taking up less than 2% of the total agricultural area (diagram 2).
    After a fall in the years 1992-93, the area of vegetables- has significantly increased, and in 1997 it was almost 120 thousand hectares (table 9). Owing to unfavourable weather and plant pest and disease conditions, the yield of certain vegetables, such as tomatoes (diagram 20), onions and melon, dramatically decreased in 1997. Thus, in spite of the increase of the planting area, the total vegetable yield was down by 3% on the year 1996 (diagrams 21-23). Eighty-six (86) % of the total vegetable output is produced by private farmers. The vegetable production of horticultural companies is significant only for the canning and freezing industry.
    The decline in the area of fruit production has stopped. To avoid ageing, new plantations are important to introduce intensive cultivation methods and new fruit species. Due to state subsidies and favourable market conditions, many plantations have been taking place since 1995. The total fruit production of Hungary was 883 thousand tons is 1997. This is 10% less than in the previous year, and 20% lower than the average of the period 1991-1995 (table 10). The reduced yield is partly due to the severe damage by the spring frosts, and partly to the ageing of the plantations. Eighty-five (85)% of the total quantity was grown by private farmers. The dominance of apple production has fallen slightly from the 61% of the period between 1991-1995 to 57% now (table 10 and diagram 24). The high ratio of industrial apple is still an important problem.
    The total area of vineyards has remained 131 thousand hectares, including 99 thousand hectares of productive vineyards (table 11). In 1997, only 800 hectares were planted with grapes, though the rotation of plantations should mean new planting on of 2,5 to -3 thousand hectares a year.
    The 1997 yield was good, a total of 717 thousand tons of grapes were harvested (diagram 25). Output was more than 52 thousand tons above that of the previous year, but it remains 9% less than the average of the years 1986-1990. Private farms harvested 93% of the total amount. The per hectare average yield of 6,6 tons is the best result of the past ten years. Ninety-four (94)% of the total yield was processed, resulting in almost 4,5 million hectolitres of wine, which amounts to more than that of the previous year, but less than that of the average of the period of 1986-1990.