Twenty Years of EU Membership in Hungarian Agriculture

In 2004, Hungarian agriculture joined the European Union and its expansive internal market under favourable conditions. Expectations among agricultural stakeholders ranged from overly optimistic to pessimistic. While neither extreme has materialized, this chapter demonstrates that the overall impact of EU accession over the past twenty years has been positive. Accession provided Hungarian agricultural products with access to a vast, unfettered market; notably, unlike most newly acceded countries, Hungary’s agricultural trade balance has remained positive throughout. Moreover, generous subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy have secured stable incomes for domestic producers. However, two significant trends have emerged: a decline in the number of farms and increasing concentration in farm sizes. A major shortcoming of Hungarian agricultural policy is its neglect of food industry development. Critics also argue that a shift from direct income support to greater investment in rural development would have been more effective in preventing rural depopulation.