Margit Kristof, a member of the steering committee of the Hungarian Functional Foodchain Council (Funkcionalis Elelmiszerlanc Termektanacs, FELT), said there was an increasing appetite in Hungary for ‘natural’ nutrition products, with many taking organic as an indicator of this.
“There is a very strong trend in Hungary right now. People are looking more and more for organic food and functional and natural products. So whether it’s a capsule, a tablet or a functional food, what is really important is that it’s natural and if it’s organic then that is really a plus,” she told us at the Hungarian pavilion at the industry event Vitafoods in Geneva last week.
Organic growing naturally
She said in this sense Hungary had been lagging behind the rest of Europe, but it was now starting to catch up with increasing amounts of land being used for organic production.
Kristof said FELT, which represented over 50 companies, was focused on ensuring all members were organic and high quality.
According to the Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (OMKi), founded in 2011, there was almost 2000 enterprises producing organic-certified food on about 135,000 hectares of land in Hungary.
Urban vs. rural
International sales director of JuvaPharma, Steven Eczet, one of the firms exhibiting with the country’s pavilion, told us he saw a marked difference between Hungary’s urban and rural populations and where they buy their supplements.
“In the capital most people go to pharmacies and the specialist shops like drug stores and other small specialist stores. In the other regions, especially in the East, they only go to the pharmacies.”
Kristof echoed this saying there was “big split” between the big city consumer and those in the countryside, much of which came down to health literacy and availability.
She added that in the past rural communities would have had a healthy diet through the food they grew themselves. Changing lifestyles meant that rural Hungarians, like the urban population, were consuming more and more packaged and ready-made foods which often had a poor nutritional value.
Unlike the urban population though, they did not have good access to health food shops to supplement this poorer diet with supplements and functional foods.
Data from Euromonitor International showed the overall Hungarian food supplements market was worth €100.5m in 2014 – up from €81.9m in 2009. Meanwhile fortified and functional packaged food was worth €154.4m.
Herbal history
Kristof said herbal products had a strong history in the country, which was now experiencing a resurgence of popularity.
Euromonitor data showed the country consumed 11,090.7 tonnes of botanical ingredients in 2014 – up from 10,240.8 tonnes in 2009.
Kristof said some Hungarians would be more likely to go to the pharmacy to buy botanical remedies than to a doctor if they had a mild illness.
Asked what impact the botanical deadlock around health claims had had on this sector, she said the Hungarian health authorities were particularly “narrow-minded” and stuck to the letter of EFSA decisions.
Citing her experience as a medical doctor, she speculated that big pharma lobby had influenced this stance. She said pharma may want to keep such active ingredients for itself, but consumers were pushing the industry in another direction. “That’s the future.”
She said organic status and the positive “hints” this sent consumers was even more important given the limitations around the claims products could make.
The pavilion was organised by the Hungarian National Trading House, established by the Hungarian government and the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce to promote the country's industry.
The pavilion included Funkcionalis Elelmiszerlanc Termektanacs, Aramis Pharma, Goodwill Pharma, HYD, Hymato Products, JuvaPharma, Pharmacoidea, Pharmax Ltd Hungary, Skin-Magic and Transmissio.