Zsolt György Papp noted that the more than 162,000 smallholders, family farms, and coops in Hungary got close to HUF 500 bln in area-based subsidies a year.
He added that farmers from Central and Eastern Europe had been excluded from talks on the future of the common agricultural policy (CAP) initiated by the European Commission.
Papp warned that the EC wanted to reduce meat consumption in the interest of climate change while disregarding the culture of livestock farming, and announced the launch of a petition in defense of farmers’ area-based subsidies and Hungarian consumers’ way of life.
Tibor András Cseh, the chief secretary of the farm association MAGOSZ, said initiatives to restructure area-based subsidies were related to preparations for Ukraine’s EU accession.
The country would account for one-third of all farmland in the EU, making area-based subsidies unsustainable, he added.
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