Taking stock and Moo-ving forward

HUNLAND I PROFILE

We can doubtless all agree that some of the best things in life come about as combinations of other things. Peanut butter and jam (or jelly, for our American readers), macaroni and cheese, hotdogs and ketchup, ice cream and chocolate sauce. And today, we can add Hunland to that list. Combining the best of Hungary and Holland, the company has produced a winning business recipe. Hunland’s management team spoke to Richard Hagan about the company’s philosophies for success.

Hunland Group, based in Hungary, is a modern, ethical facilitator, producer and trader of various livestock categories across Europe and the world. The name Hunland combines the first three letters of Hungary, and the last four of Holland, to reflect the birthplace of the company’s founder, Jos Janssen and the location of the business’ headquarters in Bugyi, Pest County, Hungary. Mr. Janssen comes from a traditional Dutch cattle trader family and when he first visited Hungary in 1992, he found Hungarian people’s mentality and commitment to work inspiring and decided to establish his family business there and settle down. During the past 30 years, Hunland became a group of companies operating worldwide.

The company’s activities are divided into three main categories: production of livestock (including farming and dairy production), trading of livestock and meat (both its own as well as connecting external farmers to buyers), and livestock transport services across Europe and globally.

The company employs around 670 staff spread across its various facilities. Looking first at the production side, its several livestock farms spread across Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia and Greece, have a combined stock capacity of 30,000 animals.

Adding the production of these farms to the combined production of its supply partner farmers, the company’s annual exports include 50,000 breeding cattle, 350,000 cattle for meat purposes, 200,000 sheep and 1.2 million pigs and piglets.

Additionally, the company owns two dairy farms with an impressive daily output of 120 tonnes, and it has its own fodder production facility with an annual production capacity of 60,000 tonnes.

Moving on to the company’s transportation division, the company operates over 140 trucks. This is a remarkable number considering that this division has only been operational since 2006. Within the fleet, the majority of the vehicles are livestock trucks, with 70 designed to carry cattle, piglets and slaughter pigs. 30 trucks are refrigerator trucks for transportation of fresh meat and medication, and 35 are bulk carriers for shipping goods out of the company’s food production factory.

Animal-centric ethics

Throughout our discussion, it’s abundantly clear that animal welfare and a strong commitment to ethics is at the heart of everything that Hunland does. Every decision, every investment and every process within the company is designed around the comfort, health and well-being of its livestock.

As Tibor Hipszki, Director of Finance and Strategy, confirmed: “Animal welfare and taking proper care of our animals is very important to us and we treat them with the utmost dignity. We have comfortable and bright, state-of-the-art, well-ventilated and (during wintertime) heated stables for calves. Later cattle are protected from heat and humidity. Our farmers use the best milk replacers for the calves and the adults are treated to the highest quality feed.”

These combined measures ensure that the company’s livestock is 100% healthy, with few or zero diseases. All of that is important because, as Mr Hipszki added: “Raising animals without stress supports higher weight-gain and generates higher meat quality.”

Of course, successfully and ethically raising livestock is only half the challenge for Hunland. The other half is delivering the animal to its destination safely and comfortably, the responsibility for which lands on Péter Hencz’s shoulders.

As the Managing Director of Hunland Trans – the company’s trucking division – Mr Hencz oversees 10,000 livestock transport-annually.

“Guaranteeing the animals’ health condition throughout the transportation process is a sensitive and important issue,” he said. “We think transparency is the key to ensuring that livestock arrives in perfect condition.”

To achieve this, the company has collaborated with the Hungarian University of Veterinary Medicine to develop a new animal welfare codex which was officially established in October 2021.

“For us, guaranteeing transparency in the transportation of animals means allowing the veterinary authorities, the non-governmental organisations, and any other relevant stakeholders, to see what’s happening with our transport and to continuously collaborate with them on best practices. We regularly communicate with all parties and we’re available day and night to take a call and correct a problem immediately.”

HUNLAND I PROFILE

The impact of Covid

Covid-related closures affected almost every business worldwide to some extent, but arguably the global hospitality industry felt, and continues to feel the biggest impact.

Hunland’s meat business was not immune from the economic shocks of lockdown, as its Head of Meat Department, Dóra SzilágyiGaal confirmed: “When Covid hit Europe and the borders closed, the meat industry was immediately impacted. Hotels and restaurants shut but supermarkets remained open.

“Pricing was the first domino to fall in the beef meat sector –especially regarding high value beef products - meanwhile poultry and pork (which are mainly supermarket products) were bought in huge volumes and supermarkets, in turn, ordered super volumes, which drove up pricing for those categories. People stocked up in the fear that food items wouldn’t be available.” she said.

As lockdowns dragged on, more and more processing plants were operating at reduced capacity due to domestic employees getting infected by the virus or foreigners going home because of the quarantine. Thus, normal processing volumes could no longer be maintained, which later generated deficit on the beef meat market.

Opposite moves were observed in the poultry and pork market, as first prices raised, then when the households were already full with meat requests decreased and prices followed. Live bird producers have reduced the numbers in the production due to unfavourable market situation, which generated important lack especially in the turkey meat market in spring 2021.

With the subsequent relaxing of business and movement restrictions, prices have begun to normalise again, but according to Mrs Szilágyi-Gaal, lockdowns have left a lasting impression on the meat market.

“At the beginning of the Covid lockdown, people bought mostly mincemeat for cooking spaghetti and hamburgers – these are quick and easy meals that everyone can cook. But now what we’re seeing is that people have found a new pleasure for cooking at home, and demand has consequently changed.”

“Nowadays people are more and more interested in what they consume and have learnt how to cook their meals at home in a professional way,” she added.

This latter phenomenon inspired Hunland Meat Department to start the Hunland Good Veal project. This brand name almost sounds like goodwill and represents our self-produced rosé veal meat that goes through a process where animal welfare and premium quality production are equally essential.

Consistency and quality

Hunland places a high premium on producing and delivering the highest quality product and precise and constant quantity at all times, on schedule. It’s a critical part of its success.

“Retaining customers requires supplying exactly what they need, when they need it, to the highest quality they require,” said Mrs Szilágyi-Gaal. “We ensure that we react to and deliver their orders in the shortest possible time.”

The company’s global network ensures that it is able to supply its customers with products at every price and quality point, as Mr Hipszki confirmed.

“We can always offer the best solution for our partners,” he said. “For example, if someone wants cheaper cattle, we can offer them livestock from South America, whereas clients with higher budgets will be offered stock from our own production.”

And when the livestock is ready to be delivered, it’ll be treated to “business class travel,” as Mr Hencz quipped, before adding: “The industry needs a better solution for temperature control in trucks. We’ve already begun building a fully climatecontrolled vehicle prototype but it still requires a lot of testing. The final product will be very useful for the whole industry and we’re extremely proud to be the first to be developing a solution like this.”

Outside of its investment in developing its own brand-new fleet of trucks, Hunland is building a major new feed factory that will double its current feed production to a total of 120,000 tonnes. Additionally, the company is expanding its farming capacity.

“We’re adding an additional capacity of 2,200 head for cattle production; that will happen in 2022,” said Mr Hipszki. “We’re also designing a sow farm with a 3,500 head capacity and annual piglet production of between 110,000 and 120,000, or around 12% of the company’s current annual trading volume. This will be a major milestone for us as it will be our first production facility in something other than cattle and sheep.” n