According to the Markazi farmer, the whole of Mátraalja is glowing now, because the purchase prices for grapes are the lowest in the country.
– Hungary is a country with agricultural capabilities. In the 1950s, they wanted to turn it into a country of iron and steel, but they didn’t succeed. Now industrialization is going on so much that guest workers have to be brought in. However, the farmland must be highly valued. Many people can make a living from it. They also make a living from it in other countries, in fact, much better than in Hungary. Hungarian farmers can count on the government even in the economic crisis of the war – this was the title of the statement issued on July 27, 2022 by Balázs Győrffy, the president of the National Chamber of Agriculture, and Zsolt Nyitrai, the prime minister’s commissioner responsible for priority social policy matters. I ask: aren’t the winegrowers farmers?! Every year in December, trade unions and works councils start wage negotiations with the management for better salaries in every company and plant. There has been no grape price increase in our sector for about 23 years. And if we expect dishonest buyers to raise the purchase price – which could even be HUF 5-10 – it won’t help either, because even 10 times that amount would not be enough. Today, the tractor driver takes the money we received for the grapes for cultivation, plowing, and spraying. You might be able to hire harvesters, but we pruned for free, tied twine, weeded, weeded, and worked on the supporting equipment, not to mention everything. If the goal is for the grape farmers to go bankrupt, then we are moving in the right direction. If that’s not the goal, then the government should lend a helping hand, because we don’t want to protest, we want to work. Work until you break if you have to. But only if it makes sense. If there isn’t, we stop. Then they will say straight and clear that there is no need for so many grapes in Mátraalja. Let’s give grubbing subsidies and cut out the unnecessary part of the vines – said István Hegedűs with quite a bit of anger in his voice.
The Markasi farmer also added that at the next forum to be held in Gyöngyöstarján in the near future, the invited guest will be Dávid Dócs, a member of the Parliament of Mi Hazánk and a member of the Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture.
