Articles
REPLANT PROBLEMS IN CONNECTION WITH THE RECONSTRUCTION OF WINE- AND FRUIT-GROWING IN HUNGARY
The climate, composed of Mediterranean, Atlantic and Continental elements, is suitable for vine and deciduous fruit growing.
In the post-war period, Hungary, among other countries in the Middle European Region, was a special laboratory where a new economical – social build-up was experimented on.
The vine growing territory due to forced abandonment of private farming first went down from 240.000 ha to some 190.000 ha to reach 2460.000 ha again as the large scale plantations became yielding.
By the collapse of the centralized system, the decrease of vine growing acreage has accelerated.
The estimated vine growing surface today is some 120.000, the smallest since the Second World War.
During twenty years, Hungarian fruit, with very few exceptions, has been gradually withdrawn from the Western European and transatlantic markets, later even from the Central European markets and was finally reduced to the Soviet market.
This trend was not favorable for the improvement of growing techniques, on the contrary, it preserved the old varieties, plantations and training methods.
The producing capacities in 1995 declined almost to one third of that in 1980.
The aim of the reconstruction of vine growing is to give absolute priority to high quality wine over mass production.
As far as we consider the fruit industry, it seems that the only way to recover it is the reconstruction of the complete build-up.
For the high quality fruit production, we must re-evaluate species, varieties, growing techniques and marketing possibilities.
We should pay special attention to integrated growing and plant protection methods.
The replant problems become an important question in the nurseries and in the new plantations as well.