Balogh Judit September 1, 2025

Rabbits and water management were also central themes at this year’s Farmer Expo

A spectacular exhibition space and family-friendly programs awaited visitors at the university’s Böszörményi út campus.

Currently, in Hungary, the annual consumption of rabbit meat per capita is just over five decigrams, and 92 percent of domestic production is exported. Demand for rabbits has fallen significantly, by almost 30 percent, in the European Union in recent years.

“Hungary has an opportunity to break out of this situation and actually make up for this 30 percent. We have received a lot of applications for the modernization of livestock farms in this regard, and they have already been implemented in recent years. The sector has a support requirement of nearly HUF 8 billion forints for the recent period, related to the modernization of livestock farms,” president of the Rabbit Product Council, Róbert Juráskó, highlighted.

The Spanish Intercun and the Hungarian Rabbit Product Council are launching a campaign to popularize rabbit meat. The initiative is particularly aimed at the over-60s, who are traditionally the largest consumers. In addition to them, they also want to convince adults between the ages of 25 and 44 of the benefits of rabbit meat. The goal is to increase the market share by 2 percent in three years and make rabbit meat an important part of family meals.

“To restore the sector’s former glory, which had decades and centuries of traditions. To bring it back into everyday consumption habits. It is a very serious achievement that the sector is one of the few that was able to produce a 10 percent increase by improving its export capacity,” President of the National Chamber of Agriculture Zsolt György Papp said.

Water management was also a prominent topic at the Farmer Expo. The State Secretary, Imre Hubai, responsible for agriculture, said that they are helping farmers to guarantee Hungary’s food security and produce the “daily bread” for Hungarians. In order to stabilize yields and maintain competitiveness, they are helping farmers with support opportunities and free irrigation water. “The most important objective of the Ministry of Agriculture, and also of the government, is to make farmers more adaptable to the challenges caused by climate change,” he emphasized.

The Farmer Expo awaited visitors until Saturday with a spectacular exhibition space and family-friendly programs on the university’s Böszörményi Road campus.

Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu