Hungary: Most sweet chestnuts are grown in Western Transdanubia

Published Dec 1, 2022

Tridge summary

The article provides an overview of the cultivation and benefits of sweet chestnuts in Hungary. Introduced in the Neolithic Age, the tree requires specific ecological conditions for growth, making commercial cultivation possible only in certain regions. Despite the challenges, sweet chestnuts are grown on approximately 276 hectares in Hungary, with the majority of the harvest coming from scattered trees and wild stands. The national yield is around 150-300 tons annually, but Hungary imports 2,000-2,500 tons of chestnuts each year due to demand from the processing industry. Sweet chestnuts are a significant part of Hungarian Christmas traditions and have numerous health benefits, including being low in fat and cholesterol, high in carbohydrates, and rich in vitamins and minerals.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

The sweet chestnut is native to southern Europe, eastern Asia and North America. Based on the finds discovered in the Anna Cave in Bükk, the ancients knew it already in the Neolithic Age. In our country, already in the XIII. was cultivated in the century. The expected age of the sweet chestnut is extremely high, it can even be hundreds of years. There are 5-600 year old chestnut trees around Kőszeg. The sweet chestnut is also native to Hungary, but special ecological requirements must be met for its cultivation, as it requires wetter weather, higher humidity and acidic soil. For this reason, commercial-scale cultivation is only possible in a few parts of the country, such as the southern Transdanubian, western Transdanubian and Börzsöny mountain regions. It is typically a small-scale plant, similar to the hazelnut. The commodity plantations planted in the 1970s, with a total area of about 450 hectares, have now almost completely disappeared. Even today, most of the annual harvest ...

Source: Agronaplo