According to Hajdú-bihari Napló, after 20 years, the former Kaba sugar factory has returned to Hungarian hands.
The owner Eastern Sugar Zrt. tried to sell the 270-hectare plant for years in vain, until a Slovak company made an offer. However, before the deal was completed, an investor group from Hajdú-Bihar made up of beet growers exercised their right of first refusal and bought the former sugar factory for hundreds of millions of forints.
According to the representative of the owners, who has requested anonymity for the time being, they can sign the sales contract with Eastern Sugar this week, and the sugar factory in Kaba can still play a significant role in the service of domestic sugar production and sugar supply.
An investor group of beet growers from Hajdú-Bihari, who do not wish to name themselves for the time being, bought the former Kaba sugar factory for hundreds of millions of forints, using their right of first refusal. They can sign the sales contract with Eastern Sugar this week.
It is well known that currently Hungarian sugar production does not even satisfy internal demand. Hungary entered the EU with a sugar quota of 400,000 tons, of which 300,000 tons were returned by companies that privatized the sugar industry, the remaining 100,000 tons are used by the factory in Kaposvár, but the country's annual need is 300,000 tons of sugar, Sándor Font, the Minister of Agriculture, said in February 2012. chairman of the committee.
The privatization of the sugar factories was also examined by the parliament earlier.
"At the end of the 1980s, there were still twelve sugar factories in our country, but their number decreased rapidly due to faulty legislation and privatization. Magyar Cukor Rt. was started in 1994 with the merger of the remaining five sugar factories. Since the state did not help, this was also sold"
- said Sándor Font in connection with the destruction of the domestic sugar industry.
The new owners of the Kabai Sugar Factory are interested in strengthening the agro-industrial activity as soon as possible.
Mayor Emma Szegi wants to get a guarantee from the new owners of the Kabai Sugar Factory that new jobs will indeed be created in the future at the site of the former industrial company, which is now an industrial park.
Eastern Sugar Zrt. not only undertook to operate the area as an industrial park until 2016, but also to create new jobs. However, nothing came of it, said the city manager.
The representative of the buyer, Kabai Agrár Ipari Park Kft., confirmed to Naplo that we have undertaken to continue ES Zrt.'s obligation, i.e., we will operate the site as an industrial park until 2016. We are not aware of any commitment to create new jobs, but as a producer of raw materials, it is obviously in our interest to strengthen agro-industrial activity in the industrial park.
The future will decide whether this means a bioethanol or biogas plant, or perhaps another industrial facility. We will make sure that as many small and large businesses as possible see fantasy in settling in the park
- He told.
Source: Agrarian Union
Featured image: haon.hu
