Less and less Hungarian groceries on the shelves of multinational chain stores
According to a new survey published by NÉBIH (Nemzeti Élelmiszerlánc-biztonsági Hivatal – National Food Chain Safety Office), approximately 70% of all products are of Hungarian origin. In comparison, the same figure was almost 80% six years ago.
According to Sokszínűvidék.24.hu, examining the product ranges of the ten largest grocery chains present in Hungary, the survey has found that, especially in the case of international companies, the share of Hungarian products has decreased; in the case of the most important categories, it is currently around 70%. Those selling fresh goods have managed to retain their positions, but in the case of items where there is a significant added value to speak of, such as different types of cheese and ham, yoghurts and jam, approximately 50% of shelf space is taken up by imported products. These are also the categories where the most considerable decrease has been recorded compared to the data from the previous survey.
Researchers recorded detailed information pertaining to almost 40 000 products, in 16 traditional categories, such as meat and dairy products, eggs and honey, which the Hungarian food industry would be able to produce enough of to provide the entire population of the country with high-quality foodstuffs.
NÉBIH officers also emphasised the advantages of locally produced groceries: they are safe, delicious, fresh, sustainable, and we can be sure where they come from.
The biggest drop in the proportion of home-produced goods was found when examining the shelves of international chains, like Penny Market, Tesco, and Lidl, each of which increased the amount of imported items by over 10% compared with Hungarian products.
If averaging all international store chains figures, there is a decrease of almost 9%, but even local stores sell 6% less Hungarian goods than six years ago. The only store to have demonstrated an increase in this field is Aldi, but even in their case, the difference is minimal, less than 1%.
If we were to rank grocery chains by the proportion of Hungarian products on their shelves, the first three places would be taken by three local stores: Reál (80.65%), Coop (80.17%) and CBA (76.95%), while Lidl would be at the bottom of the list (56.09%), followed by Tesco (66.07%) and Penny Market (67.58%).
Source: by Eszter Mrázik