By The Smartencyclopedia Staff & Agencies 

In response to the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine, the Hungarian government has introduced a new decree, numbered 80/2024, aimed at tightening controls on the importation of certain agricultural products. Effective today, April 16, 2024, this decree imposes stringent requirements on anyone importing these goods into Hungary, including both companies and individuals, necessitating prior notification to the National Food Chain Safety Authority (NÉBIH).

According to the provisions outlined in Government Decree 80/2024, importers must notify the NÉBIH in advance of any planned importation of agricultural products listed in Annex 1 of the Decree. This requirement remains applicable during the state of emergency declared by Decree 424/2022, which came into force on October 28, 2022.

The notification process entails submitting comprehensive information concerning the importer, the specific agricultural product, details of the intended consignee, the anticipated import period, and the logistics of transport. Importers are required to submit this information in writing using a form provided by the NÉBIH.

Notifications for the import of agricultural products into Hungary can be lodged through the official page: NÉBIH Import Declaration Portal. Importers must ensure that their notifications are submitted in Hungarian at least 24 hours before importation. However, a shorter deadline of 6 hours is applicable for imports by air or water.

Under the provisions of the decree, multiple imports may be included in a single notification, provided they occur within 30 days of the initial notification.

Strict penalties await non-compliant importers who fail to adhere to these requirements or provide complete documentation. The police and state tax and customs authorities are tasked with enforcing compliance, with administrative fines of up to forty percent of the value of the notifiable product levied on violators.

Furthermore, the decree outlines specific documentation requirements, stipulating that documentation of the notification must accompany the shipment and be made available to the carrier or organizer. It emphasizes that compliance with the regulation will be rigorously monitored by the aforementioned authorities, with no leniency granted for non-compliance.

The agricultural products covered by the Decree include meats, bird’s eggs, vegetables, cereals and flours, seeds and oils, crispy bread, vegetables prepared or preserved without vinegar or acetic acid, and wine from fresh grapes, among others.

The introduction of this decree underscores Hungary’s commitment to ensuring food safety and security amid the ongoing regional instability, as well as its determination to safeguard against potential risks posed by the conflict in neighboring Ukraine.

The list of agricultural products covered by the Decree is as follows:

• meats (beef, pork, lamb, or goat meat; edible meat, offal and offal of poultry of the species Gallus domesticus) in fresh, chilled, or frozen forms,
• bird’s eggs in their shells, fresh, preserved, or cooked, vegetables (raw, cooked by steaming or boiling in water or frozen),
• cereals: wheat, rye, barley, maize, buckwheat, millet and canary seed;
• flours: wheat flour and other cereal flours, cereals otherwise processed (e.g. hulled, flattened, flaked, polished, sliced, ​​or coarsely ground);
• seeds: rapeseed, sunflower seeds, safflower seed, and cottonseed oil,
• oils: rapeseed and mustard oil,
• crispy bread,
• vegetables (except candied) prepared or preserved without vinegar or acetic acid (except tomatoes and edible mushrooms), not frozen;
• wine from fresh grapes, including fortified wine; grape must (except grape juice) and wine vinegar under heading 2209.