Four companies from Hungary, AlphaVet Ltd., Bábolna Tetra Ltd, Kőröstej Ltd., and Capriovus Ltd., are in Ghana to find business partners and develop bilateral relations with local companies not just for imports and exports but also investments to facilitate economic growth in the near future.

As part of the project, representatives of the companies are being hosted by the Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Tamás Endre Fehér through the Embassy of Hungary for a series of engagements.

At a business forum held in Accra on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, at the embassy, representatives of the four companies did a presentation, highlighting all basic information including operations, their partners, potential partners, and targets amongst others to stakeholders and possible business partners.

Speaking with the media at the event, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghanaian-Hungarian Business Council, Ms Mona S. Annewetey noted that historically, the first trade delegation from Hungary was in Ghana in August 1959 and since then, Ghana and Hungry had a bilateral relationship.

However, she said it has been a while since Ghana had a trade delegation come from Hungary.

She noted that since the entry of the four companies, they have done a couple of visits to some companies and institutions including the veterinary services department as well as Agrofood to assess how the companies can establish business relationships.

“The whole essence is to find partners in Ghana not just for imports and exports but also investments in future because almost all these countries are into manufacturing and production within the agribusiness and so the focus is to bridge that gap between Hungary and Ghana and also to facilitate economic growth,” she said.

After the business forum, Ms Mona S. Annewetey expressed hope that starting from now, the companies will be able to identify partners and nurture the relationship that is going to start.

“With assistance from the Ghanaian Hungarian Business Council, we will organise a reciprocal meeting and trip to Hungary and hopefully we will be able to close in on some agreements to kickstart and initiate businesses within the organisations that are here and the Hungarian companies,” she said.

She also observed that economically and in terms of tourism, Hungary is not really known in Ghana as compared to the United States of America and other European countries.

“So our mission is working with the embassy to make Hungary known to Ghanaians, especially organisations, Government Institutions and businesses, as well as schools and tourism entities. Our main mission is basically to close the gap between Ghana and Hungary in all aspects to bring growth to both countries,” she added.

Meanwhile, Ms Mona S. Annewetey said the Council in collaboration with the Embassy is working on the tourism aspect, adding that they have already met with some tourism organisers to promote the sector alongside the businesses.

“We are working on the tourism bits as well, I met with some of the tourism organisers in Ghana and we connected to Hungarian entities so we are actually starting to do a river cruise that will start from Budapest, through Oslo and other European countries.

"Basically, it is relaxation and all those things. As a business Council, our focus is not just on tourism, it is on business so what we want to do and we are still in the planning session is that we are going to have a business delegation like how we have the Hungarian companies here to go Hungary and then we wrap it up with a tour of Hungary. Everything is projected for next year. Our target is that the companies and the Ghanaian representatives here will find the need to partner with these Hungarian Companies so for a maiden trip, we will probably do a tour to these companies, their production sites, and subsidiaries and then we will end it up with a tourism package,” she said.

An export director of the Export Division at AlphaVet, Dr Márton Hercsel, also noted that the company’s expectation is to extend its services to the whole of West Africa.

“Our expectation from this project is to extend our operations into West Africa, we of course know that this is an expanding market and a growing market and we acknowledge that and in the future, we would like to find good partners for our plant fertilizer portfolio, for our feeder portfolio and finally our pharmaceuticals,” he said.

As a solution-based company, he assured that the company is ready to provide solutions to those who need help both in Ghana and in Hungary.

Already, he said he met many prominent export-oriented organisations here in Ghana and he gathered that Ghana wants to move from an agricultural and mining exporter to a more refined products exporter company, saying that AlphaVet will bring solutions to that.

For his part, the General Manager for Korostej, Béla Nagy also said, "We are here to boom trade between two countries, we are searching for a partner here for distribution and we are hoping to find many sources of supply as well. We produce cheese, we use a lot of raw materials, packaging materials so we are open for both ways of cooperation with local companies”.

As a producer of cheese, he said the company is also here to find out about the market here in Ghana, adding that they will visit hypermarkets, and supermarkets and will meet with traders, and potential partners to do business with them.

He also appreciated that Ghana is the most welcoming country he has visited so far, thanking Ghanaians for their reception.