Hungary is one of the special guests at the Golden Autumn agriculture and food industry exhibition, which opened in Moscow on Wednesday. The Hungarian delegation is headed by Minster for Rural Development Sándor Fazekas.
Russia's most important agricultural event, organised for the 15th time this year, was opened by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Megvedev, after which he immediately visited the Hungarian stand in the company of Russian Minister of Agriculture Nikolay Fyodorov.
The Prime Minister tasted some flambé goose liver, prepared by master chef Lázár Kovács, as well as the recommended accompaniment, cherry pálinka and Tokaj wine.
Mr. Medvedev praised Hungarian cuisine, stating that its traditions are also present in Russia and must be preserved, Sándor Fazekas recounted. The fact that the Prime Minister made such a gesture and paid his respects at the Hungarian part of the exhibition is also significant because Russia was the guest of honour at the 76th National Agriculture and Food Industry Exhibition (OMÉK) held in Budapest in September, the Minister for Rural Development told Hungarian news agency MTI.
"This is a huge and very elegant exhibition with an extremely wide selection of products. Each Russian region is represented with a very wide range of goods, world class products and excellent packaging, and we must also compete with them for a place on the Russian market. However, the prospects for high quality, hand-made Hungarian foods are extremely good, because we provide wonderful flavours and a excellent range of products", Minister Fazekas said, assessing what he had seen at the exhibition. 50 Russian regions and 24 foreign countries, presenting some 2500 enterprises, are represented at the exhibition held at the All-Russian Exhibition Centre (VVC).
Holland is this year's official partner to the Golden Autumn exhibition, within the framework of the Dutch-Russian bilateral year. The participants do their best to not only present their food industry products, but to also give visitors a taste of their cultural traditions.
Dagestan and Ingushetia, for instance, attracted interest with exotic dances from the Caucasus, but all of the exhibitors also offer samples of their most characteristic foods. While the stand of Ingushetia presented horse meat and sheep's milk cheeses, wine, salami, stew and chimney cakes were the order of the day at the Hungarian stand, with large queues often forming.
On this occasion, Hungarian wines are represented by the Szekszárd wine region. Sándor Fazekas told the press that in addition, Hungarian meat industry and cheese-making enterprises and companies that market various food industry and feed production technologies are also present at the exhibition, as well as Hungarian stock animals and seeds.
There is a wide selection of Hungarian exhibitors from agricultural machine manufacturer Hevesgép and wine-makers from Szekszárd to the Vegetable Crops Research Institute (ZKI). We can offer the highest international standards of quality from raw materials through to finished products, and Hungarian products have attracted a great deal of professional interest at the exhibition, added the Minister for Rural Development, who on Wednesday also held bilateral talks with his Russian counterpart Nikolay Fyodorov and took part in a special presentation of wines from Szekszárd.
The Hungarian delegation for the exhibition also includes Minister of State for Food Chain Supervision and Agricultural Administration Endre Kardeván and Minister of State for Agricultural Economy György Czervan, as well as Deputy State Secretary for Law and Administration Attila István Simon.
(MTI, Ministry of Rural Development)
