Hungarian exports of beef and rabbit meat to Singapore could begin soon, Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas announced following talks with the head of the Southeast Asian country’s Ministry of National Development Lawrence Wong in Singapore.
At the meeting, it was stated that Singapore has lifted its ban on Hungarian poultry imports that it had previously imposed because of the bird flu epidemic. The two Ministers also discussed cooperation opportunities between the two countries within the fields of food safety, aquaculture and environmental affairs.
Mr. Fazekas, who was in Singapore as part of an official delegation headed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, signed a framework agreement between Hungary’s National Food Chain Safety Office (NFCSO), which operates as a background institution of the Ministry of Agriculture, and Singapore’s Agriculture, Food Industry and Animal Health Authority (AVA), which enable an exchange of information that is also of great importance to Hungarian exports, as well as the unhindered continuation of food safety cooperation.
The Minister also met with the director of Wilmar International Limited, one of Asia’s largest agro-economic enterprises, to discuss the import of Hungarian agricultural products. The company group, which employs 90 thousand people in fifty countries around the world, expressed an interest in trading cereal products.
Singapore, which is a city state with a population of 5.6 million people, is one of Asia’s most important ports, in addition to being an important hub for trade between Asia and Europe. Singapore will hold the rotating presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2018.