Many people have started a dairy business in recent years, and most of them see cheese making as a new venture. Based on the distribution of registered capital, 58 percent of dairy processing and dairy product manufacturing companies were Hungarian-owned, meaning that the share of foreign capital in the sector has increased, according to a summary by the Institute of Agricultural Economics (AKI).
In view of the government’s objective – not to export raw materials from Hungary, but to produce the higher value-added product at home – it is encouraging that more companies have started milk processing in recent years. Among these, cheese production has expanded the most through the growth of artisanal and small-scale processing, points out Világgazdaság.Subsidies have also made a significant contribution to this: last year, for example, HUF 15.2 billion (EUR 37.5 million) for dairy cows, HUF 9 billion (EUR 22 million) for the national milk subsidy, …