L. VARADI and Z. JENEY
1. INTRODUCTION
1. Fish culture in Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe with an area of 93 000 square Km. The climate is typical continental climate with four distinct seasons. The fish growing season is about 150 days, when the temperature of the water is above 16°C. The average water temperature during the growing season is around 20°C. During the fairly long winter time from November until March, the ponds usually are freezing, and the over wintering of fish in deep ponds is needed. The annual precipitation is 800 mm, hut most of the rain falls out of the growing season. About 140 000 ha natural water area and 20 000 ha man made fish ponds are the major resources for fish production in Hungary. Due to the special hydrogeographic conditions, more than 90 percent of the rivers have their source in the surrounding countries, and this situation creates difficulties in the water management sometimes that has an effect on the fisheries and aquaculture as well. The geothermal water resources should also be mentioned as potential water resources for fish production.
81 freshwater fish species can be found in the natural waters in Hungary (Pintér, 1989), 68 specie are native in this region, while 13 species have been introduced mostly form Asia. There are 29 protected species in Hungary.
Fisheries in natural waters in one of the oldest activity in Hungary. For centuries fish “production” in river basins and wetlands were common. However, with the introduction of animal husbandry and the intensification of agricultural methods for crops, much of the lands were drained. In 19th century most of the rivers were “canalised” by flood protection dikes. Regulation of rivers and the drainage of swamps and marshes reduced the available fishing area and most of the natural spawning places disappeared. In order to compensate the decreasing captures from natural waters, extensive fish pond construction programme was started at the beginning of this century. Fish farms were built up on poor soils (not suitable for other agricultural activities).
Large size fish farms (up to 5000 hectares) have been dominant in pond fish production that were operated by large co-operatives and state farms under the centrally planned economy on the past forty-five years. The common carp dominant polyculture production is the most typical fish production method in Hungary, 94 percent of the total fish production were cyprinids in 1990, out of which 72 percent was common carp (Figure 1). This fish production by species in 1992 is shown in Table 1. There has been a steady increase in the fish production after the Second World War as shown in Figure 2. Although the vast majority of the fish was produced in state owned fish farms, that were operated according to the rules of the centrally planned economy, changes in market conditions have effected the production even in this period as illustrated in Figure 3. After a steady increase in the production between 1971 and 1977, there was a decline in the fish pond production in the following two years. Besides the adverse climate conditions in this period, economical factors (suspension and stop of government subsidy) had a great effect on the decline of the production. Since this time the fish production sector has become market oriented, and the production was determined by the conditions of demand and supply on the market.
Since demand exceeded supply on the market the production increased again and reached an ever measured peak in 1983 with a total volume of 43,000 tons. A considerable amount of the production were Chinese carps at this time, that were exported to the Middle East. Due to the war between Iraq and Iran, these markets collapsed suddenly and this was one of the main reasons why fish production dropped dramatically in the following years. Fish production showed a gradual increase between 1986 and 1988 but than there was a 10 percent drop in 1990 and 9 percent in 1991. The fish production was cut back by farmers because of the uncertainties in the ownership, and the increasing costs. The effect of the long drought period should also be mentioned, that affected adversely the natural production as well that has been declining since 1986.
1.1 Fish production in ponds
About 70 percent of the total production in Hungary comes from fish ponds. The area of the fish ponds used for fish production is 27,000 hectares, however only 20,700 hectares were in use in 1992. Common carp has been raised in ponds for many years in Hungary. At the beginning, the common carp was produced in monoculture. The traditional practice has been changed significantly in the late sixteen when the Chinese carps - silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix Val.), bighead (Aristichthys nobilis Rich.) and grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella Val.) - were introduced to Hungary. Since then, the fish production in polyculture has become dominant in the Hungarian fish farming, in which Chinese carps play an important role in increasing the production due to the full utilisation of food web. The market size of common carp is about 1 kg, and in normal conditions it takes three years to reach this size. At the end of the first growing season the average body weight of the fry if between 10 and 50 grams. The fish is kept in special wintering ponds during the winter time and stocked into fingerling rearing ponds in the spring time when the water temperature increase above 10oC. The fish can reach an average body weight of about 150–250 grams after the second summer, and after a second wintering period it can be grown up to market size during the third summer. The fish production in ponds is based on the utilisation of the natural food, therefore the application of manure and fertilisers is a vital part of the technology, however supplementary feeding with cereals is also applied. 1.5–2.0 tons/ha total yield can be reached in a well managed fish ponds in a 150 days growing season. Strong seasonality exists in ponds fish production and in marketing: more than 70% of table size fish is harvested ans sold during the Christmas time.
Increased production costs, environmental impact problems and utilisation of poor quality soils were the main reasons for the development of integrated aquaculture in Hungary. Fish-cum-duck culture, aquaculture rotation and the use of organic manure of different sources in aquaculture systems were the typical forms applied. Significant extra production could be reached through these technologies.
Among the more valuable cultured fishes the European catfish, or wells (Silurus glanis L.), pikeperch (Stizosteidon lucioperca L.,), pike (Esox lucius L.) and the eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) should be mentioned. For European catfish, pikeperch and pike special Hungarian methods of propagation and culture have been developed. Development of culture technologies for endemic crayfishes (Astacus astacus I, and Astacus leptodactylus L.) is a new direction in aquaculture.
1.2. Fish production in natural waters
About 140,000 hectares natural water area is available in Hungary for aquaculture and fisheries. Approximately 30 percent of the total fish production comes from lakes (including the 60,000 hectares Lake Balaton), rivers, oxbow lakes and water in Table 1. The applied management practices show a great variety according to bee the conditions of the water body. The contribution of river fish ries to the total fish production is only 3 percent, but it has special importance to provided fresh fish to the market continuously and also to improve the selection of species on the market. Most of the oxbow lakes are utilised in a complex way in Hungary that includes flood production, water supply, run-off water collection, fisheries, duck production, recreation, and support of protected and endangered species). The importance of recreation and recreational fisheries however has got more emphasis in the utilisation of these water areas. The larger lakes and reservoirs are utilised both by commercial and recreational fisheries as it is demonstrated in Figure 4. The relative importance of recreational fisheries has generally been increasing in Hungary due to the growing demand fort sport fishing. There are about 360,000 anglers in Hungary, and their contribution to the total market size fish production was as much as 24 percent in 1992.
1.3. Fish production in intensive systems
The fish production in intensive systems is not more than about 500 tons annually, that is less than 2 percent of the total fish production in Hungary (Varadi and Tahy, 1993). There are eight intensive tank-production systems in Hungary, in which high-Valuc species, like sturgeons (Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baeri Brandt) and its hybrid with endemic sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus L.) eel (Anguila anguilla L.), European and African catfishes (Silurus glanis L. and Clarias gariepinus Burchel) are produced mostly for export. The operation of these systems is based on the utilisation of geothermal energy that is abundantly available in Hungary. These have been a steady but moderate increase in the intensive production of high-value species because of the good export marketing possibilities, availability of geothermal water resources and the changing economical environment, however the rapid expansion of these systems can not be expected in the near future because higher licensing criteria and stricter regulatory systems are going to be introduced.
2. SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF FISH CULTURE
The food and agriculture industry plays an important role in the Hungarian economy. It generates 17% of the GDP, employs 18% of the active population, supplies 25% of the total export, and contributes significantly to the maintenance of the positive balance of payment (Rasko, 1993). The fish production sector is a small, but special sub-sector of the agriculture. About 3,000 people are involved in fisheries and aquaculture currently, that is about 0.54 percent of the total labour force in aquaculture (Nash, 1992). The total value of fish production is about 23 million USD in the year of 1992 that remains below two percent of the total agricultural production. Fish does not play an important role in the diet of the people. The fish consumption per capita is not more than 3 kg/year, and the ratio of fish was about 4.0% of the total meat consumption (7403 kg/year/capita) in 1991.
Although fish is not a staple food in Hungary, it has a special, traditional role during certain holidays, first of all during Christmas time. Fish production is one of the most profitable agricultural activity, and there is an increasing interest by new entrepreneurs in fish production that can be carried out in the frame of small-scale private enterprises. Unfortunately no well established marketing channels are available, and fish processing practically doesn't exist in Hungary (most of he fish are sold alive). About 2,000 tons of fish mostly carp) was imported from the neighbouring Countries (Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania etc.) in 1992, on lower prices than the local production costs. At the same time there was a dramatic drop in export volume in 1992. The member farms of the Association of Fish Producers exported 75 percent less market size carp in 1992 than in 1991. There was also a high competition on western markets with Eastern European producers, that were seeking for hard currency.
Fish however has not only economical importance, but it has a special role in the optimal utilisation and conservation of the natural water resources in Hungary. Fish ponds are important water users, and about 50% of the total irrigation water is used for the water supply of fish ponds. Fish ponds however are not simply “objects” for fish production, but helps to retain rain and run-off waters, improves the micro climate and their aesthetic role should also be mentioned. The natural waters and their surroundings are becoming high value resources for the preservation of the native flora and fauna and also for recreation and eco-tourism. The fish is not only a user of natural waters as habitats, but indicates environmental problems and able to improve the conditions of degraded water bodies through biomanipulation. The importance of the recreational fisheries is increasing in Hungary as it was described in Chapter 1.2., and examples are also available for the use of fish for biomanipulation (Olah et al., 1987).
Recreational fisheries is one solid basis of he future development of the fish culture in Hungary, but the demand for fish as healthy food is also expected to be increased in the future. In spite of the rather insufficient advertisement, there is an increasing public awareness of the importance of healthy diet in which fish plays an important role. According to Kesteloot (1990) there is significant correlation between the animal fat consumption and the mortality of the population as shown in Figure 5. The situation in Hungary is very bad in this respect, therefore the improvement of the diet should be an important task in the future. A new programme has been launched recently in order to improve the diet in Hungary, that includes the development of fish processing as well.
3. CHANGES OF THE FISH PRODUCTION SECTOR DURING THE TRANSITIONS PERIOD
In order to enabling Hungary to join the European integration, a rigorous and occasionally painful economic restructuring has been implemented. Before the restructuring, even in 1990, more than 80% of the arable lands was cultivated by large-scale co-operatives and state farms, and only 14% by small producers. The proportion of private ownership has already reached 80%, and when the privatisation will be completed, only 2% of the arable land will stay permanently in state hands. A special element of the privatisation process is the compensation. According to the Compensation Law, the land (the area is maximised) is being returned to be original owners and/or their successors. Until the compensation process is completed, no state owned land can be sold, but the land can be rented (Rasko, 1993).
In 1992 the former state owned co-operatives have been dissolved and “new type” of co-operatives were established, where the leaders were freely elected, the properties and assets went into the ownership of the members. The law let the members to decide whether they want to stay in or leave the co-operative taking their share or assets with them. About 6–10% of the members decides to leave the co-operatives and to start individual enterprise. Those who left the co-operatives received about 5 ha land and some equipment with a value of about 4–5 thousand USD as an average. (Horvath et al., 1993). There are about 25 "new type" of co-operatives in Hungary that are involved in fish production. The activity of these co-operatives has not changed too much, however the ownership has been restructured and they have full autonomy.
Out of the 121 state farms only 25 remained in state ownership due to their strategic role in seed and breeding stock supply. Most of the state farms have been restructured and operate as share holding companies or limited liability companies, however ownership rights have been exercised by the State Property Agency for the time of being. There have been 22 states owned fish farms in the past, and only two of them remained in state ownership. These two fish farms have special role in the Hungarian fish culture. Balaton Fish Farm is responsible for the management of the 60,000 hectares lake Balaton that is a major tourist area in Hungary, the Warm Water Fish Hatchery at Szahalombatta, that was established by the help of FAO, is a basic hatchery for quality seed supply, and also acts a training and development centre.
During the privatisation process, various size and type of fish farms have been and being established. Most of the private fish farms are fairly small in area, but there are private fish farms that operate several hundred ha fish ponds. The considerable changes in the ownership of the fish ponds are shown in Figure 6.
There are considerable changes in the legal, financial and institutional background as well, in order to facilitate the transition process into market economy. Numerous laws and acts have been passed in the past period such as: Compensation Law, Law on the Mandatory Restructuring of the State Owned enterprises, Law on Co-operative Transformation, Market Regime Law, to mention only the most important ones. Although the new Fisheries Act has not been fully elaborated yet, a recently issued Ministerial Order brought some considerable changes in the application of the fisheries rights. According to this regulation, all companies, organisations and private entrepreneurs have equal right to apply for the fisheries right of a water area owned by the state. The Ministry gives priority to those applicants that have high professional skill and present a well elaborated plan for the fisheries utilisation of the given water body.
In order to promote private enterprises various governmental interventions have been implemented in form of reduced taxes special loans and interest rates. A special Agricultural Fund has also been established recently to promote the restructuring process, to improve the technical conditions of agriculture production, and to preserve the gene stocks and natural resources. One component of this special fund is the Fisheries Fund that provides financial support for the rehabilitation and fish enhancement of natural waters, and it also support research on this area. However other components of the Agricultural Fund can also be used by the fish production sector for the maintenance of high value fish breeding stocks and for the technical improvement of production facilities.
Financing is one of the main problems for fish farmers. Although the bank systems has been changing, special agricultural loans are not readily available, running times and interest rates are not tailored to the special conditions of the agricultural production. Difficulties in financing would create an even more serious liquidity crisis in fish production, where the production cycle is long, and it takes three years to grow the fish up to market size in traditional fish pond production. The respond of the farms to the increasing financial difficulties was the cutback of the production, that is well indicated by the reduction of the input materials as shown in Figure 7.
In the centrally planned economy trade was regulated administratively rather than by the market. The producers were dependent on the various state owned trading companies that were in a monopolistic position having exclusive export-import licence.
Although foreign trade has been "liberalised" in the early eighties, business contracts and knowledge on this field remained the privilege of a fairly small number of experts. After being directed or guided by the state, most of the producers have not been prepared for the new challenges, they lack marketing skills, business and market information. Thanks in the entrepreneurial spirit of the Hungarian farmers, most of them are adapting well to the new situation. The new law on “Market Regime” helps to regulate the market and to secure free and fair competition for all participants on the market. According to this new law, so called “Product Councils” have been organised with the participation of the producers and traders. One branch of the product councils is the Fish council, that suggests limit prices, contingents, export-ban periods etc.
Under the previous regime, technology transfer was accomplished through the technical staff of agricultural scientist, economists, and veterinarians employed by the state farms and co-operatives, however this functional system has been disappeared during the restructuring of the agriculture. The reestablishment and strengthening of an effective extension system has been started, however it is not functional yet. There are some firms and groups which provide private agricultural advisory services to farmers, however the main constraints confronting the establishment of a flourishing extension services by these new practitioners are given as: lack of money to pay for the service, in some areas community prejudice against former employees of the cooperatives and state farms, and farmer confidence in his ability to solve his own problems (Finlayson, 1993). Larger scale farming units such as many privatised state farms and larger co-operatives continue to employ their own technical advisory staff or purchase the required assistance at full cost from private extension services, universities or research institutions, but small scale farmers are still facing with difficulties to get access to special services and information. No extension service is available for fisheries and aquaculture. However the Fish Culture Research Institute and other institutions that are involved in research and development on this field, are providing assitance and services through various channels. The Association of Fish Producers also assists the technology transfer providing linkage between farmers and research institutions, organising meetings and training programmes.
Agricultural education and training is undertaken by a number of institutions including three agricultural universities in Hungary. Although no MSc courses on fisheries are available at these universities, opportunities exist for students to be specialised in fisheries and aquaculture, an there are also state scholarships to study these subjects abroad. Vocational training and education is limited due to the relatively small demand by the sub-sector, and courses and post graduate education are held intermittently. There is one special school in Hungary for the training of skilled fishermen. The regular 3-year course caters for 20–25 students annually, but post graduate master-fishermen courses are also held occasionally according to the demand.
There is a solid research and development background in aquaculture and fisheries in Hungary. Special methods in the propagation and pond production of common carp that were elaborated by Hungarian scientists are widely applied world-wide. The core institution for research and development is the Fish Culture Research Institute (HAKI) at Szarvas, that is an internationally acknowledged centre in this field. In spite of the serious cutback in financing research during the past three years, the Institute could preserve and even develop the valuable research capacities as a result of an internal restructuring programme.
4. CONCLUSIONS
The difficulties of the transition period into market economy combining with other difficulties related to the increasing competition for water resources and adverse weather conditions, created recession in fish production in the past four years. The considerable changes in ownership created uncertainty in the fish production sector. As a result of this, not only the production was cut back, but the necessary reconstruction works of he ponds and water control structures were also neglected. Even in money was available for some farmers, they used if for new investments rather than reconstruct facilities that might not be his own in the future. Most of the farmers are not prepared for the new challenges, business and market information are not readily available, the extension background has not been developed. The fish production sector should meet the requirements of an emerging more diversified market that requires continuous supply of high quality products, and the new regulations of the European Community requires special measures for producers and processors. Financing is a serious bottle neck of the development of fish production. The financial institutional and bank system has not been fully developed yet, agricultural loans are not readily available and the interest rate is very high. Water is becoming a critical factor in fish production due to the increasing competition for water resources. The difficulties in water supply have further been increased by the drought in the past ten years. Due to environmental considerations, the use of natural waters for aquaculture is becoming limited, while the importance of recreational fisheries is increasing. During the further development of aquaculture, farmers have to be prepared for implementing more effective measures in order to minimise the pollutants in the effluents since higher licensing criteria and stricter regulatory system will be applied in the near future.
Fish production however is still one of most profitable sub-sector in aquaculture and offer good opportunities for entrepreneurs. As a results of the completion of the privatisation, and the gradual development of the legal and institutional background, some signs of growth have been appeared in the fish production sector. The evolution of the Hungarian agriculture, and that of the fish production has inevitably become market driven. However, market economy is combined with “social sensitiveness” (that has been preserved from the past) can provide a good basis for balanced development in agriculture. Based on long tradition in fish culture in Hungary, and a solid knowledge and experience on this field, and also on the entrepreneurial spirit of the farmers, the fish production sector will overcome those problems that are emerging and intensifying during the transition period into market economy, and the Hungarian fish production sector will be an integral part of the European fisheries and aquaculture community in the not too distant future.
5. REFERENCES
FINLAYSON,P. 1993: The development of an extension service for Hungarian agriculture. Proc. 9th. International Farm Management Congress, Budapest-Gödöllo, Hungary, July 11–17, 1993. pp. 99–107.
FM STAGEK. (Statistical Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture), 1993: Statistical data of fish production in Hungary, 1992. Ministry of Agriculture, Budapest. (in Hungarian)
HALTERMOSZ (Association of Fish Producers), 1993: Annual Report, 1992. Budapest.
HORVATH, G., E. Kanizsai, L. Laszlo, Szoke, M. Vörös. 1993: The organisation and ownership structure of Hungarian aquaculture, Proc. 9th. International Farm Management Farm Management Congress, Budapest-Gödöllo, Hungary, July 11–17, 1993. pp. 5–11.
KESTELOOT, H. 1990: Nutrition and Health. Lectures presented at the Workshop of the Hungarian Nutritional Society, Budapest, Hungary, April 5., 1990. Medicus Universalis Supplement Therapy. PP. 3–8 (in Hungarian)
NASH, C.E. 1992: Employment and Manpower in Aquaculture. A Background Review FAO, Human Resources, Institutions and Agrarian Reform Division, Rome. p. 91.
OLAH, J., F. PEKAR, E. JANURIK, J. NEMESOK. 1987: The utilisation and disposal of geothermal waters. Development of Fish Meat Production 13. Fish Culture Research Institute, Szarvas, Hungary, p. 72. (in Hungarian)
RASKOM, GY. 1993. Hungarian experience with structural adjustment and privatisation of agriculture. Proc. 9th. International Farm Management Congress, Budapest-Gödöllo, Hungary, July 11–17, 1993. pp. 5–11.
VARADI, L. and B. TAHY. 1993. The change of the fish production sector in Hungary, during the transition period into market economy. Abstracts of Contributions presented at the International Conference World Aquaculture 93, Torremolinos, Spain, May 26–28. 1993. pp; 281.
Figure 1. Fish production by species in Hungary in 1992
| Pond and intensive production of finfishes | Pond and intensive production of carps |
 |  |
| Total production of finfishes: 20.758 | Total production of carps: 19.353 |
Figure 2. The fish five-year averages of fish production in Hungary between 1945–1990
Figure 3. Fish production in Hungary between 1971–1992
