Hungary possesses very good agroecological conditions even in a European comparison. Agriculture and food production ishighly important despite its decreasing relative economic significance, since providing high quality and affordable food for the population isa basic social necessity and one of the decisive factors in quality of life. The development of vegetable and fruit production is of greatimportance both from a healthy nutrition as well as from a comparative advantage (cheap labour, expertise, production traditions, favourableclimate) point of view.Vegetable and fruit consumption per capita is lower than in developed countries, which is a decisive indicator of healthynutrition, but improvement is continuous and desired. Appropriate quality and quantity in production is a requirement to meet customers’needs in a highly competitive market from one year to the next. Hungary can only be competitive if production results are improved whilerisks are reduced. Fruit production is a sector with high capital requirements, risk assessment is very important from a production, investmentas well as from a national economy point of view. Our examinations will focus on production risk, which is present in the annual fluctuationof average yields, especially as a result of extreme weather factors
