Hungary: Most of the lucky lentils come from abroad

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), lentil production has increased from 4,287,162 hectares in 2010 to 6,582,779 hectares in 2017. The world's largest lentil-producing countries are Canada, India and the United States. In the largest area in the European Union, lentils are grown in Spain, on 36,504 hectares, but also in France and Greece. In Hungary, only 284 hectares of lentils were sown this year. Nevertheless, in addition to the 4400 tons of imports, about 200 tons were also exported from Hungary, although a significant part of this was re-exports. In Hungary, the stable buyer's market for lentils has not yet developed, so the security of sales is low, and the demand is minimal in the field of domestically grown lentils due to the significant volume of imports. Export-import data show that we import significant quantities, almost half from Canada and the rest from Russia and Poland. The explanation for the low domestic production is ...