"Wine is much more that an agricultural product, it is part of the national image and a strategic area", the Minister for Rural Development declared at the "Put Hungarian Wine on the Table" professional forum in Mátraderecske.

Sándor Fazekas said that there is a large-scale restructuring underway within the wine sector and one of the most important current tasks is the renewal of the wine community system.

According to the Minister, an important issue from the point of view of the sector is to what extent the state should intervene in the sector's operation, over and above the provision of tender opportunities. The state has a great responsibility, he pointed out, because the wine sector provides employment to some 100 thousand people directly, not to mention those involved in catering, tourism and gastronomy.

According to Sándor Fazekas, although wine consumption has not increased in Hungary, increasing numbers of consumers are becoming selective when choosing what wine to buy.

The Minister reported on the fact that the export-import balance of the wine trade had turned positive this year, achieving a year-on-year increase of 30 percent during the first half of the year, while wine exports had fallen by 17 percent. However, 65 percent of exports still consisted of lower quality wines sold in bulk.

There are currently 71,500 hectares of vineyard in the country and this year's crop is expected to produce 2.5-3 million hectolitres of wine, the Minister stated.

According to Mr. Fazekas, 5000 hectares of vineyard had been successfully reintroduced this year. "Our goal is the replant the best wine-growing areas and to produce high quality wine", he stressed.

According to current EU regulations, the replanting of a further 9 thousand hectares is possible, he said, adding that this could provide the background for the reinforcement of the status of wine, which plays such an important role in the national identity, and the increase in quality experienced in recent years could lead to the regaining of lost domestic and foreign markets. 6.5 billion forints in funding has been paid out this year to facilitate vineyard replanting, the Minister added.

Sándor Fazekas also spoke of the fact that one of the tasks of the National Wine Excellence Programme is to determine what varieties of wine are worth planting where, and the location of the country's best potential wine-growing areas. The Hungarian flagship white wine has already been selected, he pointed out, and next year it is the turn of Hungary's red wines.

(MTI)