Better price for Hungarian goose export

Despite the fact that charges by animal rights activists in the recent years cut exports noticeably, Hungary is still by far the most importer exporter of foie gras or goose liver. Now, the good news for the industry is that this year, they managed to increase prices.

Hungary is responsible for 90% of the world’s foie gras exports. In the past three years, a smear campaign in the European, especially Austrian press against Hungarian goose products, citing animal cruelty, caused Hungarian exports decrease by 3,000 tons, that is, some 10%. Representatives of the Hungarian poultry industry dismissed the charges and suspected international competitors behind it. In addition, due to the world financial crisis, consumers all over Europe turned towards the less expensive products. However, latter impact seems to have proven temporary and this year, Hungarian exporters succeeded in realizing a slight increase in prices.

Although, the recent years have not been not the best for the industry, the traditional annual Goose Festival has again been held this year in Kiskunfélegyháza, southeast Hungary. Goose beauty contest, cooking contest and other programs created good atmosphere for the family event. “The goose is a fantastic animal. Its meat is healthy and tasty, its fat contains polyunsaturated fatty acid while its feather is still the best filling material for quilts and pillows.” That is how Dr. Sándor Horváth, the organizer of the event, and – at the same time – the CEO of one of the country’s top poultry processing companies argues for the goose and the festival.

With its average 30 kilograms/person/year consumption of poultry products, Hungary is among the top countries in the world. Still, the players of the industry believe that high quality domestic products need to be popularized through various means, including this Goose festival, as import products of usually poorer quality may put the industry into a difficult situation. Consumers in Western Europe have been aware of the quality of Hungarian products and it now seems that they are willing to pay for that a little bit more.