The Hungarian government awarded Kall a HUF 9.2 bln grant for the project, which is creating almost 500 jobs. MKB Bank and Eximbank provided HUF 30 bln in credit for the plant.
Eximbank estimates the plant could lift Hungaryʼs GDP by HUF 185 bln, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the inauguration ceremony. The plant is expected to generate annual revenues of HUF 55 bln, turning 530,000 tonnes of maize into sweetener.
“Hungary’s reindustrialization has reached a new milestone with Kall Ingredients’ isosugar refinery in Tiszapüspöki,” declared Orbán. He added that the EUʼs sugar quota had been “catastrophic” for Hungary, and “it was the reason that, of the 12 sugar refineries operating at the time of the fall of communism, only one is still in existence.”
State news wire MTI noted that Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga and Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas also participated at the ceremony, as did László Kárpáti, the majority owner of Kall Ingredients, and Lőrinc Mészáros of Opus Global, a minority owner in the company (he is also the mayor of Orbánʼs hometown of Felcsút).
In a disclosure posted on the website of the Budapest Stock Exchange on Monday, Opus Global said it indirectly holds a stake conferring 6% of voting rights in Kall Ingredients.
Hungarian-owned Kall produces food industry ingredients, sugar and starch products, high-quality alcohol for medical and food industry use, and feed ingredients, primarily for export. Isoglucose is a sweet and colorless glucose-fructose syrup made from starch extracted from maize, explained kormany.hu.
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