HUNGARY
Aranyponty is a pioneer of multifunctional ďŹ sh ponds
A strong case for diverse income streams Aranyponty was one of the ďŹ rst pond ďŹ sh farms in Hungary to recognise the potential of diversifying its activities. Today the company offers angling, hunting, tourism, and bird watching among other activities.
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ranyponty has fish ponds at three sites with the main one in Retimajor, where it has been operating for more than 25 years. The fish ponds there existed even before the company took over, but they, as well as the buildings on the site, were all in terrible shape, when the company bought the farm in 1994. The farm was improved step by step – the network of roads between the ponds was repaired as were the weirs supplying the ponds with water – altogether the renovation of the ponds took 12 years after which the repair work on the buildings started and the restaurant, hotel, and wellness centre were opened. At the beginning people wondered whether Ferenc Levai, the owner of Aranyponty, would be able to complete the task. Their scepticism was perhaps justified as at 800 ha the site was huge and the damage was extensive.
A number of activities surround a core of ďŹ sh production Ference Levai, who has been in the pond fish farming business for almost 50 years, explains that the idea at Aranyponty was to have a range of different activities building on a backbone of fish production. All resources were taken into use, solar energy, pasture land, services, gastronomy, etc. A museum filled with fishingrelated artefacts shows how fishing has evolved over time, and in addition there is a conference hall. In the restaurant the objective was to be close to nature, so the company has its own production of wine, meat, vegetables and, of course, fish. Being more or less self-sustaining was not only important for Mr Levai personally, but also makes the company more stable, because there are
The museum at Aranyponty chronicles the evolution of ďŹ shing in Hungary and is intended both for adults and children.
different sources of income, for example, when there is no revenue from fish production, there is income from angling. Common carp is the anglers’ favourite fish, so the pond at the angling centre is stocked mostly with common carp and Prussian carp. Thanks to the availability of geothermally heated water the carp are still feeding even in the coldest winter periods giving anglers a chance to catch them. Today, in addition to the site at Retimajor there are sites in Hortobagy and Tata, that the company has leased. Tata has had fish ponds since the middle ages, but when Aranyponty started their activities there, the town had not had any fish farming activity there for a long time, and the locals were therefore delighted that fish would again be produced in Tata, says Judit Sitkei,
who is in charge of tourism and conference activities.
Experimenting with new species and production forms The company produces all the classic pond-farmed fish but is constantly conducting trials with other species. In one project trials are conducted to raise pike on artificial feeds, another is experimenting with paddlefish, and in a third, sterile grass carp are being reared in collaboration with a Hungarian university for stocking in natural water. The pike project is a welldeveloped activity, with the fish being reared in tanks to the fingerling stage. The advantage is that the fish can be reared in periods when they do not naturally breed. They are also much bigger when released into ponds, so they are less vulnerable to predators and
Fish is freshly processed at the onsite facility and sold at the ďŹ sh shop located on the farm. EUROFISH Magazine 1 / 2019
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