Announcement about Challenges of Fruit Wine Industry in Hungary

Abstract

Every­where in the world, the cul­ture of grape wine goes back cen­tur­ies or even mil­len­nia. In Hun­gary, the con­sump­tion of Hun­garian grape wine plays a sig­ni­fic­ant role in every­day life, while fruit wines are re­garded by con­sumers as un­known, un­usual, in­ac­cess­ible premium products or as bever­ages for oc­ca­sional con­sump­tion. In the 19th cen­tury, the drink­ing of fruit wine used to be pre­ferred in Hun­gary. Over the years, a cul­ture of fruit wines and pro­duc­tion winer­ies has evolved throughout Europe on a fairly strong basis, and has, in an un­usual way, es­caped the ‘at­ten­tion’ of Hun­garian pro­du­cers and con­sumers. The aim of this study is to ex­plore the val­ues and op­por­tun­it­ies of the fruit wine sec­tor. It is not well-known in Hun­gary, but there is a great deal of po­ten­tial in this sec­tor, which, as op­por­tun­it­ies un­fold, would be­come more widely known to the con­sumer so­ci­ety. It could be­come one of the po­ten­tial sec­tors of our coun­try be­sides the pro­duc­tion of pálinka and grape wine.