Organic farmers in Hungary receive double subsidies compared to us in Romania

Angelica Lefter
– April 1, 2024 00:09

The cow breeder Varga Istvan, the administrator of the Manufactura de Brânza factory, from the town of Cund, Mureș county, sounds the alarm and warns that small organic farmers do not have much chance of survival due to the very small amounts they receive from the state as subsidies. The level of payments that organic farmers receive has not been updated since 2014.

Varga farmer Istvan: I was deprived of 3,000 euros in subsidies for the milk cow

Farmer Varga Istvan raises around 50 cattle, 35 of which are milk cows, and owns an area of ​​47.3 hectares of organic pasture. Although he is also a cheese producer, he could not get state support for the dairy cow because of red tape, as he reported for Agrointelligence – AGROINTEL.RO.

“I have 50 cows from the Bălță cu Roșu breed, of which 35 produce milk. A farmer in Romania is also considered a large farmer, who has large farms. I process the milk from my own farm in a center integrated into the holding, I am in the eighth year already, and last year, when that aid was given to the dairy cow, because I could not prove that I sold milk for processing, considering seeing that I also process myself, I was deprived of 3,000 euros. Moreover, considering that I produce one of the cleanest and healthiest milk in Romania, I don’t use silos, I don’t give premix, nothing that would be harmful for cows, my cows live even beyond the age that is subsidized for the coupled support, because I care about my animals and there is no point in killing them prematurely so to speak. I was not considered a milk producer, so you can see what the system is like”, said Istvan Varga.

Farmers in the organic sector in Hungary have double subsidies compared to Romanian farmers

Added to all this is the fact that the subsidies that Romanian farmers receive, at least those who produce organically, are half compared to other farmers in the EU. A comparison made by livestock breeder Varga Istvan considers the organic sector subsidies received by neighboring Hungarian farmers. Here it is clearly proven, according to the figures, that they benefit from double subsidies compared to Romanian farmers.

“I have the pasture for the second year in organic, until two years ago it was in conversion, I don’t actually produce organic, but I make sure that my cows eat as naturally as possible. Romania would have great potential on the ecological side, especially in the mountainous areas. But we take a little and look at what subsidies there are for Hungarian farmers, in the neighboring country, we do not need to go further, the differences are huge. I don’t know why there is this discrepancy, I suspect that in the more western states there is an even bigger discrepancy, I don’t know who should fight for these rights. I, looking for these figures for Romanian farmers, on the APIA page, can only find those from the former 2014-2020 program. I participated in an event and found out that no changes have been made to organic since 2014, so 10 years have passed and nothing has been changed at our place”, explained the farmer.

Varga Istvan also presented us with some data regarding the subsidies that organic farmers in Hungary benefit from, compared to those in Romania:

Farmers Romania – conversion – ecological

• Agricultural crops on agricultural land – conversion subsidy 293 euros/ha – ecological subsidy 218 euros/ha
• vegetables – conversion subsidy 500 euros/ha – ecological subsidy 431 euros/ha
• orchards – conversion subsidy 620 euros/ha – ecological subsidy 442 euros/ha
• Are you coming – conversion subsidy 530 euros/ha – ecological subsidy 479 euros/ha
• Permanent grasslands – conversion subsidy 39 euros with commitment and 143 euros/ha – ecological subsidy 73 euros/ha with commitment and 129 euros without commitment.

Farmers Hungary – conversion – organic

• Agricultural crops on agricultural land – conversion subsidy 458 euros/ha – ecological subsidy 218 euros/ha
• vegetables – conversion subsidy 1,097 euros/ha – ecological subsidy 664 euros/ha
• orchards – conversion subsidy 1,762 euros/ha – ecological subsidy 967 euros/ha

Hungary has over 1,100 euros more than Romania in conversion and more than double in organic already. They do a breakdown when it comes to certain apple varieties where the subsidy is even higher.

• Apples – conversion subsidy 1,840 euros/ha – ecological subsidy 1,136 euros/ha
• Are you coming – conversion subsidy 1,132 euros/ha – ecological subsidy 1,097 euros/ha
• Permanent grasslands – ecological subsidy or conversion 204 euros/ha.

Read also: APIA 2024 subsidies. General conditions for payment per hectare and animals

Istvan Varga: Ecological subsidies should be aligned with European ones

Farmer Varga Istvan explains these differences by the fact that the share of organic agriculture in Romania is too small to be of major interest to the people in charge.

“If we take the figures from Hungary, we are talking about double amounts in most situations. The explanation would be that the share of organic agriculture in Romania is too small to be of major interest for the responsible persons, on the other hand, it cannot be of major interest even for potential organic producers if there are no figures as such. We can say that few toxic substances have been used on the soils of our country. During the pre-accession period, mainly due to the lack of funds, our soils were a little affected, but now we should think about leaving something for the generations that come after us and we should be more careful about how we treat the land that it feeds us. I think the authorities could simply check the data, if the subsidies have not been aligned since 2014. I don’t think it’s hard, I think someone there forgot about the organic subsidies. So they should first be checked and then aligned with the European ones”, concluded the cheese producer and dairy cow breeder Varga Istvan.

Also Read: List of Nitrogen Fixing Crops for APIA Subsidy