The slow but inexorable march of Hungary's favorite sweet snack took a giant leap forward at a Hungarian-Chinese economic forum held in Beijing on Monday, when a recently-formed Hungarian company, EU-Milk Technologies Kft. signed a co-operation contract with a Chinese agriculture company to produce "Túró Rudi" bars in China. Péterné Tóthfalusy, president and co-owner of EU-Milk, told Népszabadság that talks had been ongoing with the Chinese partner for three years, and they had acquired 10,000 Holstein-Friesian cows to produce the milk necessary to make the tangy chocolate-covered cheese curd bars. The Chinese company will expand its factory, and the Hungarian partner will provide machines and the all-important know-how. According to plans, production will start in March 2008, after which 100,000 Túró Rudis will be produced every day for the Chinese market.

The owners of EU-Milk include food industry professor Árpád Kovács, milk industry expert Kálmán Kaplár and consultant/investor Dezső Pusztai. They think they will not have legal problems with the biggest producers of Túró Rudi in Hungary, such as Friesland Hungária Zrt. and Danone Kft., because neither the production technology nor the format of the product is proprietary. Eximbank has provided a $2 million loan for the project.

Beáta Kiss, manager of outside company relations at Danone, did not wish to comment on EU-Milk's plans in China, and she denied reports that Danone would hand over its Marcali plant and the production of Túró Rudi to the management of the new company.

Both Danone and Friesland keep their recipes for Túró Rudi a secret, in addition to all data regarding production and marketing of the product. An annual 400 million Túró Rudis are sold in Hungary, and the two leading manufacturers have tried to open markets for TR in other European countries. Sales abroad are nowhere near those in Hungary, so the companies do not plan to start manufacturing the product in other countries.

But just to give you an idea of how big the potential Chinese market for Túró Rudi could be, EU-Milk has contingency plans to increase the number of Túró Rudi-dedicated Chinese cows to 150,000 within a decade. And unless those cows are vastly more productive than the first batch, this would still only provide one daily Rudi for approximately every 1,000 potential Rudi-eaters, a situation that in Hungary would be so desperate people would probably try to dig their way to China. Meanwhile, if (as we suspect) the agreement turns out to be just one of those no-go-nowhere showcase deals companies feel obliged to sign while on overseas junkets with politicians, it could mean more than one extra "Emperor's Chocolate Curd Treasure" for every Hungarian, every day of the year.