In an interesting development that runs counter to the image of Hungary as a land of hypermarkets and over-processed foods, a recent survey by research group GfK discovered that an increasing number of Hungarians are buying milk not in paper cartons or plastic bags or bottles, but from retailers of "unbottled" milk sold out of large containers at mostly local food markets.

According to a summary of the survey on business portal vg.hu, the trend towards drinking more unbottled milk is being driven less by a taste for the rustic, but price. In March and April 2008, one liter of kimért tej cost Ft 144 (€.62), when the average price on the market was Ft 175 per liter. As you might expect, the consumers of most such milk are predominately lower-income and older folks who aren't freaked out by the idea of buying their milk pretty much direct from the cow.

Meanwhile, the overall market for milk is undergoing some other changes. More households are consuming milk - 91%, up from 89% a year ago - but the product is bought less frequently, which means the amount of milk consumed has not changed. On average, families bought milk 13.2 times in the first quarter, or roughly once a week.

Low-fat (below 1.5%) milk is becoming more popular, mostly among young consumers, and its share of the overall market has reached 35%, up from 29% two years ago. High-fat (above 2.9%) milk is also purchased often, while the popularity of "normal" milk (with a fat content of 1.6% to 2.8%) has decreased over the past few years, dropping to 40% from over 60% in the first quarter of 2005.