The figure represents a year-on-year increase of more than 58% over the HUF 350 million allotted in 2013.

In a related story, Foreign Trade State Secretary Péter Szijjártó again touted his government’s Eastward-facing import/export strategy to national news service MTI yesterday, describing the food and wine industries as a pillar in the ministry’s plans along with the machine (and specifically the automotive sector), engineering and water management industries.

Szijjártó was forced to admit, however, that non-European Union countries account for just 10% of all export of wine from Hungary. A majority presumably go to the US, Russia and China, as these nations collectively buy up nearly half of all EU wine exports as of 2012.

Szijjártó also reiterated the government’s goal of sending 33.3% of exports to non-European Union member states, though without specifying any deadline to reach said objective. According to the Central Statistics Office (KSH), approximately 23% of exports were sent to markets outside the EU in 2013.