Concentration of the trade and the small-scale fruit and vegetable producers – practices in Hungary and in the European Union

This study examines the conflicts arising from the requirements of the food retail chains and theirpossible solutions, based on an analysis of the foreign and domestic trade literature and on a domestic assessmentof 2008. Direct supplies from small-scale producers have future prospects only in the field of niche marketproducts. Only production organisations integrating small-scale producers may be successful in the supply oflarge quantity products of homogeneous quality. In Hungary, similar organisations – principally POs – still donot have a role comparable to that they fulfil in more developed countries of the European Union in the field ofthe supplies to the food retail chains. For increasing supplies, the domestic small-scale producers should changetheir mentality, and increase their adaptability and marketing-oriented innovative skills. The state, on the otherhand, should grant assistance in mitigating the lack of capital due to the small-scale production and supportmore efficiently the increasing role of the different producer organisations, especially of the POs.