There is no longer sufficient domestic labour available in Hungary to meet Master Good’s growing production needs, therefore the company must involve international workers – said László Bárány, the company’s managing director, at a professional conference held in Budapest on Wednesday.
“We are not bringing in international workers because it would be cheaper, but because there is no domestic labour available,” he stressed.
He added that if they are unable to bring in labour from abroad, then the planned new factory worth 120 billion forints will definitely not be built in Hungary, and they may even reduce domestic production. According to Bárány László, politicians should also ask whether this is good for the country.
He estimated that over the next five years, in order for the company to double its production, around 3,000 new employees will be needed, 15 percent of whom will be manual workers.
He emphasized that even an industry with a high level of automation, such as the food industry, cannot function without manual labour. He added that automation and robotics, including humanoid robots, may offer a long-term solution to easing labour shortages, but the replacement of low-skilled manual workers is only expected decades from now.
According to Bárány László, there is a need for flexible regulation that adapts to economic needs and depends on economic performance. He believes that non-qualified positions will be filled by international workers, similar to Western Europe, and noted that labour shortages have a positive effect on wage growth, but do not increase the size of the workforce.
He also added that population decline is one of the greatest challenges, and in his view, an open social dialogue on this issue is necessary.
At the conference it was stated that Hungary’s population may decrease to 9.4 million by 2030, fall below 9 million by 2040, and is projected to be between 8.3 and 8.7 million by 2050.
According to publicly available company data, Master Good increased its revenue to 213.047 billion forints in 2025, up from 180.992 billion forints in the previous year, while its after-tax profit rose to 25.507 billion forints over the same period, up from 24.455 million forints in 2024.
(MTI)
