Major tendencies in livestock changes after the EU accession

Abstract

In the mid 80s Hungarian agriculture belonged to the forefront of the world in many respects, despite the fact that there was a lot to do regarding yields, production costs, production structure, and the fastness of adaptability to markets and establishing accordance between the elements of the food industry chain. The mid 1980s witnessed an energetic improvement despite the unequal pace, and then followed an era of different tensions and imbalances in Hungarian agriculture. At the time of the regime change the agricultural sector, and particularly animal production within that, suffered from the signs of crisis and it was getting into an increasingly difficult position. The vast majority of the agricultural large scale farms ceased to exist, and most of the arable land was privatised. Production fell back, its composition became more heterogeneous, sometimes with an irrational production structure and selling difficulties arouse. Profitability decreased in the field of animal production generally, and some activities even had losses. The domestic consumption fallback, which was caused by the farmers’ lack of capital, the unorganised production, and the decrease in living standards, produced an amount of unsellable goods and it made the otherwise low profitability even worse. The low level of profitability resealed in unjustified production decline and led to the fact that the number of domestic animals in Hungary decreased to a never experienced depth. Today there are positive changes in the field of animal production, which might result in the long-term growth of our livestock. This study was designed to present the major tendencies and spatial characteristics of Hungarian livestock.