Hungary’s wine industry faces a new threat as an infectious grapevine disease, flavescence doree, has now been detected across nearly all of the country’s wine-producing regions, including the historic Tokaj area.
According to the National Food Chain Safety Office (Nebih) on Wednesday, the disease, carried primarily by the American grapevine leafhopper, can devastate vineyards by sharply reducing the productivity of older vines and killing younger plants.
While it poses no danger to humans, there is currently no known treatment for the pathogen, Nebih insisted.
The report added that suspected cases were recently discovered near two villages in northern wine regions that had previously remained unaffected.
One of these is in Tokaj, renowned for its sweet wines and recognised as one of the world’s first legally classified wine regions.
"The county plant protection inspectors took samples at both locations, and the Nebih laboratory ultimately confirmed the presence of the quarantine pathogen," the agency said in a statement.
Authorities have since established containment perimeters around the affected plantations, inspecting all vines and destroying any infected plants.
Hungary produced 270 million litres of wine last year, ranking as the world’s 14th largest producer and accounting for 1.2 percent of global output, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV).
Vineyard owners and authorities are now racing to contain the disease, warning that the pest’s spread has been accelerated by climate change, which has helped the leafhopper expand across central Europe in recent years.
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