Hungary will not extend the ban on honey imports from Ukraine. They want to make money on resale

Hungary will not extend the ban on honey imports from Ukraine, despite the demands of local producers who claimed that cheap honey from Ukraine has led to a drop in prices on the local market and threatens their business. This was stated by Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy, Reuters reports.

The official acknowledged that the unilateral import ban did not have a positive impact on the local market, as wholesale purchase prices did not increase as much as local beekeepers had hoped.

At the same time, the ban on imports of Ukrainian honey has harmed companies that packaged it and exported it further to the EU, the Hungarian minister said. According to him, local exporters need Ukrainian honey because otherwise they will not be able to fulfill their contracts. Therefore, on February 19, the ban on honey imports from Ukraine was lifted, which caused protests by local beekeepers.

“Since the closure (ban) could no longer support the interests of Hungarian beekeepers, it had no tangible impact, we did not want to create even more problems… so we had to reopen our market,” Nagy said.

He added that the Hungarian government does not plan to re-ban honey imports from Ukraine.

The largest exporters of honey to the EU are China and Ukraine. The Ukrainian product accounted for 25% of honey imports to the EU in January-August 2023, according to the European Commission.

Earlier, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy said that his country would not lift the unilateral ban on imports of a number of Ukrainian agricultural products until restrictions are imposed at the European level.

As you know, despite the compromise found by the European Commission to lift restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, Hungary decided to impose a unilateral ban on imports of Ukrainian grain and other goods after September 15, 2023.

Budapest closed its borders to 24 types of Ukrainian products, including meat of cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, as well as chicken, wheat, rye, barley, corn and corn products, vegetables, sugar and wine. However, in October 2023, the Hungarian government lifted the ban on imports of Ukrainian sugar.

Tags: Ukraine, Hungary, restrictions, honey