Unique Hungarian meat products to hit the European market

A Hungarian farmer may sell his products abroad as well.

Dezső Szomor established his farm by first buying animals off the slaughterhouse right before they would have been killed. In 1993, he won the lease tenders for the areas of the Kiskunság National Park, where he has been working ever since. – writes hellovidek.hu.  Over the past 23 years, Szomor only kept Hungarian animal breeds on the land, such as the grey cattle.

The farmer may have 2,500 – 3,000 grey cattle on the land. Ironically, however, the animals do not have a profitable value alive, so the farmer sells them as meat products.

“It took a decade and a half for the cattle breeding project, which started as a hobby, to finally become a real business. Until then, the breeding – the yearly selling of 20-30 animals from the bull farm jointly established with the Kiskunság National Park – only covered the expenses” – Agrárszektor quoted Dezső Szomor.

He has high hopes for his business. He wants to cross the breeds so that they would produce higher quality meat, thus making the meat he sells popular in other European countries as well. Furthermore, in order to reconstruct the wetland, Szomor and his business partner made a 250 hectares fish lake.

But his primary focus remains on grey cattle breeding.

The ultimate goal of the Kiskunság National Park and the Hortobágy National Park is to protect the genetic resources of animals. Aside from the Alföld National Parks, the Hungarian grey cattle are kept in demonstration sites set up for tourism and on pastures in nature reserves. There the animals are kept in a pure-blood form, without crossing them with other breeds. Currently, there are about 4,400 registered cows and 320 registered bulls in the country.

The grey cattle is a breed that currently has been developing dynamically. The grey cattle was the first domestic animal breed that became officially protected in Hungary. The breeding is coordinated by the Hungarian Gray Cattle Breeders Association (a Magyar Szürke Szarvasmarha Tenyésztők Egyesülete). The breed is also useful for utilising pastures that are in bad conditions.