The draft of the bill on promoting quality Hungarian products, know-hows and intellectual properties that belong to the national heritage has arrived to its final stage before being presented to Parliament, BBJ learned from Zoltán Gyaraky, a department head of the Ministry of Rural Development.

The main objective of legistrators is to establish quality criteria for the certification trade mark “Hungaricum”; on the other hand, they wish to encourage local communities to come up with as many Hungarian “local specialties” as possible. The problem is that these two goals seem to be working against each other.

The Hungarian Amateur Folk Dancers Organization is claiming that it is to be registered by the future National Hungaricum Committee and the Ulti Players’ Union – named after a popular card game played exclusively in Hungary – is also likely to ask for the same. Although it is still unclear how these organizations would benefit from a certification trade mark, the bill itself does not exclude them from the accreditation process.

What is more, the bill would establish several hundred Committees for the Registration of Local Specialties countrywide in order to register as many local brands as possible and qualify them as “local” or a “regional” specialties according to their importance. A National Committee for Hungaricums would declare the most prestigious regional specialties to be Hungaricums.

“We would welcome folk dances like csárdás as Hungaricums. On the one hand, it is a nice idea to connect pálinka tasting events with folk dance performances,” said Erzsébet Prekop, president of Hungarian Pálinka Alliance, who is also the managing director of Miskolci Likőrgyár. “On the other hand, candidates who wish to gain the Hungaricum title for their products should be aware not only of the rights stemming from such a trade mark but of the obligations as well. I mean the moral responsibility of representing Hungary by the product in question as well as the costs of constant quality control,” she added.

Problems stemming from the excessive broadening of the range of specialties are both technical and theoretical. “The more Hungaricum candidates differ from each other the harder it is to apply a uniform system of criteria for their acceptance or refusal,” warned Gábor Róna, president of the Hungaricum Alliance.

Foodstuffs, for example, are easy to qualify as “100% Hungarian”, if their main ingredients were grown and processed in Hungary. A much lower percentage of Hungarian origin should be stated for the components of industrial products, while these criteria can hardly, if at all, be implied for intellectual properties.

“Let us think about the Nobel Prize winning inventors who were born and educated in Hungary, but their scientific career culminated abroad, often in exile”. According to Róna all these circumstances can easily undermine professional confidence in the Hungaricum Committee’s decisions as well as the quality associated with Hungaricums.

Theoretical objections may be even more serious. “There are two markedly different benefits that specialties qualified as Hungaricums could earn for their owners,”, an expert unwilling to be identified told BBJ. “One the one hand, producers might expect to distinguish their products so that they can sell more of them.” This is how classical certifying trade marks work.

In addition, in the case of Hungaricums marketing costs of the trade mark would be subsidized by the state. On the other hand, owners of qualified specialties might aspire for further financial support if the state declares the question of Hungaricums an issue of national interest. “This might well explain why originators of non-product-like specialties are so enthusiastic about applying for Hungaricum label,” our skeptic source remarked.

Even producers’ expectations differ from each other, depending on what sort of state subsidy related to the Hungaricum label they hope to gain. “Hopefully our positions would grow stronger when bargaining with food store chain representatives if ewe cheese were qualified as a Hungaricum. So our access to the Hungarian market would improve a lot,” József Magyar, owner of the Kistelek cheese factory told BBJ. “Even though our domestic turnover is solidly increasing, we can hardly get a toehold in foreign liqueur markets unless the state backs us by centrally organized marketing” Erzsébet Prekop added.

Attila Simon, managing director of Hungary’s number one porcelain manufacture at Herend went even further. “Tax cuts and direct state subsidies are necessary devices to make Hungaricum products internationally successful in a long run,” he said, although in a short run he would be content with indirect subsidies, too. “Of course, I am aware of the present difficulties of the central budget. However, the reduction of patent fees and the subsidizing of Hungarian presence at international expos and cultural events would make a substantial difference even under the present circumstances.

According to Erzsébet Prekop, one must not underestimate Hungaricums’ symbolic presence abroad. “It would be a good idea if, for example, pálinka were offered as welcome drink at embassy receptions and events organized by Hungarian Cultural Institutes located in foreign cities; the shot of pálinka would be introduced by the ambassador or director who would say a few words about the cultural role of this traditional Hungarian liqueur.

One might think that the bill will reveal what sort of subsidies the Hungarian state is willing to back up Hungaricums with. But this is not the case. “We will be able to decide on the extent of subsidies only after cataloguing national specialties and measuring the demand for subsidies against the financial capacities of the central budget,” Zoltán Gyaraky summed up the Ministry’s stand on the issue.

Hearing this, some experts expressed doubts about the impact of the Hungaricum bill. “We have seen many certification trademarks – from Quality Food from Hungary to Hungarian Product – failing just because, due to the lack of resources invested in marketing, they failed to leave a lasting mark in the consciousness of consumers. Unless the government spends hundreds of millions on the new trade mark, the Hungaricum label will meet the fate of its predecessors,” skeptics point out.