Distillery Gyori Szeszgar es Finomito expects revenue this year to climb 10% over last year’s HUF 7.5bn, CEO Gyorgy Follath told MTI.

Mr Follath said last year’s revenue was flat. The distillery shut down for two months because of a lack of feedstock but rising prices offset fall in volume, he said.

Exports, mainly to Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia, generate 70-75% of the company’s revenue. The company’s biggest partners are in the pharmaceutical and chemicals industries, followed by the spirits industry, which buys under 20% of output.

Mr Follath said the decline of Hungary’s sugar refining business – as a result of a cut in European Union subsidies for sugar beet farmers – had forced the company to import molasses, used to make ethyl alcohol.