Organic in budapest ?

Hi and welcome on the forum Frank!

I hope other members will give you some helpful advices soon.

Regards
Armand

badpirate wrote:

would there be a market in the expat community for a weekly or byweekly delivery of fresh or freshly frozen organic chicken/pork/perhaps beef,  and possibly in season fresh vegetables ? at fair market value ? secret recipe kolbasz ?

It would be an interesting idea. It's all about marketing of course.  I am not sure people - expats included - would be prepared to pay a premium for these kinds of things, given the agricultural interest many Hungarians have (e.g. weekends spent tilling the soil at their holiday homes) and the plethora of supermarket choices. Expats also have higher disposable incomes, unlike many Hungarians at the moment. There's also the likes of the monster Tesco and Aldi to fight against. It's just not worth keeping even chickens these days unless you live right out in the sticks and have some traditional/special interest.

My own interest is more obtaining low fat and low sugar products for health reasons. It seems to me that many people in Hungary do not know about these things and if they do, they simply don't care. It's just like smoking and heavy drinking  - they are all doing it, assuming nothing will happen to them but always someone else and they dismiss the health risks. This seems to be particularly true of the older generation (ok, my in-laws are the main part of my  small sample and of course, observation). Medical profession also seems to be focused on fixing things, not actually preventing them.

Example 1: I've been trying to find plain, uncomplicated, unsugared, non-fruit Greek yoghurt (preferably 2% fat) in Hungary and no-one knows about it. I have found a supermarket that sells 10% fat Greek yoghurt (CBA in Diosd). The owner said no-one wants 2% Greek yoghurt. I have no idea why because it's very nice and far better than the acidic sloppy natural yoghurt you get in Tesco.

Example 2: Bran. People sell it at stupidly high prices as it's considered "health food". Like 7 EUR for small bags. That's crazy! You can get about 2kg of it in the UK for about 2 EUR. It's not that expensive! But in Hungary, it's almost impossible to buy it.

So, don't know about your venture into secret sausages, bio-pork, etc but I think there could be mileage in importing real proper (healthy eating) food products (I do not over priced quack based homeopathic looney remedies which also seem to be popular).

Hi,

While I sympathize with your downshift plans, I think the people interested in organic produce usually prefer to buy locally with as little transportation involved as possible. So if you choose a remote location, don't plan to deliver further than the nearest population center.

For this reason I'd like to recommend my beloved Szentendre island:
Significant local buying power, close to Szentendre with even more health conscious people, restrictions on industrial activity and chemical use (to protect the drinking water wells all around), rural setting, Budapest reachable, a few established organic farms and lots of homeowners with small gardens to bond with.
Real estate prices higher than the middle of nowhere of course, but the Northern end around Kisoroszi should be affordable.

Anyway do this for the fun or the benefit of eating what you grow, don't even hope for financial viability!

Hi there!
Someone is already doing kolbasz but english one in Budapest.

Wilkinson's British Sausage.hu

I do not know how good or bad they are....

And few words about the expats in Budapest.The first category is the one who is still employed and has a financial stability and the second category those who are  living from mouth to hand who are even poorer(in some situations)than hungarians.

Hi

I live in Pecs and find that free range eggs and bio products are quite easily come by. We have two excellent bio shops here and there is a stall on the local market. The prices are not too high.

I would like to see someone here make a decent cheese as Hungarians have about 100 different types of cheeses and they all taste the same. Give me a good cheddar anyday. They do, of course, have cheddar cheese here but it is from Germany and is tasteless. There is cathederal mature in one store but costs about 10000Huf per kilogramme which is crazy.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do but it will have to be a niche product to capture any market and make a living here.

I beg to differ, we have two flavors of regular cheese: plain and smoked :-)

I'm cheese-illiterate, passing by the 30 meter cheese counter in  supermarkets gave me the impression there's plenty of variety at prices I can't afford :-)

However there are a number of different traditional dairy products you might want to try if you are looking for variety:

"Túró" is white crumbly cottage cheese, very common.
We put it on pasta with crunchy fried bacon crumbs. Tastes plain, but lends itself to flavoring well, see for example "kőrözött", traditional breadspread based on it. Mixed with cream and sugar, topped with fruit is dessert, mixed with sour cream and raisins is the best palacsinta (rolled up crepes) filling here is.

"Orda" is a less common byproduct from boiling the leftover protein from the liquid partition of milk after extracting the solids in cheese making.
White, less crumbly, more paste-like, has a sweet, interesting taste on its own. (in case of goats milk, but probably similar from cows milk, except possibly yellow.)

"Juhtúró" or "gomolya túró" is some kind of soft cheese from sheep milk, commonly available. Strong, distinctive smell and taste, sometimes used in baking salty pastry. Great with some dill.

"Kecskesajt" is goats cheese. Lots of people hate goats milk, but I've never met anyone who'd refuse goats cheese. We make simple, soft, light cheese, eat it plain or flavor it with chives, onions, garlic, walnut, garden herbs, whatever. Making hard cheese is, well, harder, takes more time, chemicals, culture, storage, etc. We love it soft anyway and never bother. You can surely get some on the local farmers market, often pricey.

Being french, I can say that the cheese offer in Hungary is quite limited! And imported cheese from France or Switzerland is simply unaffordable for the poor student I am.
I agree with fluffy: healthy food is so much more expensive that unhealthy food and for me it is always a dilemma when shopping: eating healthy or saving money?
So all in all to answer to the original question: I think there would be a demand for healthy food (especially among expats) but then the price would also enter into account for a large number of people?

This looks like an old post but I will soon be moving to Budapest and am interested in having locally grown organic food delivered to my home.  This is a very popular practice in my town in the USA. Does anyone know if there is such a service in Budapest?  In the USA the farmer puts together a basket of several fruits and vegetables (his choice) and delivers them on a set day each week.
Really convenient

Badpirate
What about Pheasant thats organic and i saw hundreds of them out there in the wild

I'd be interested to find out where you can get good organic veg in budapest. So far I've found the range really poor here in the usual supermarkets.

There is an organic market on saturday morning up untill about midday on the buda side. It is fairly good although there is not very good certification and some of the produce may not be organic so you have to choose the stalls carefully. It is situated at the parking place of the Budapest Congress Centrum which is by a park leading up the hill.

There is also a organic supermarket in the shopping centre at szell kalman ter (formally moskva ter) tram 4,6 and metro. This is not cheap but has a good selection.

Some of the spar supermarkets have quite a few organic products.

I would think selling at the organic market could make money and this could be combined with deliveries on saturday to existing clients.

Shops selling expensive stuff with the "organic" label are called "biobolt". They sometimes have fresh produce as well.

Hi.
Are you planning to make organic farming of the meat?
I can be potential costumer for meat that is from organic farming.
I hate that ugly Tesco meat!
Please let me know.
And if you dont plan to do it but you know about some organic farm in Budapest sorroundings so please let me know.
Have a great evening.
Iveta