HUNGARIAN COMPANY HUNGERS TO INCREASE MARKETS FOR SALAMI.

Byline: Jeffery Ulbrich Associated Press 

SZEGED, Hungary - In a 17-story building overlooking the lazy Tisza River, 1 million winter salamis hang by their little strings, aging, absorbing smoke and preparing themselves for the palates of Western Europe.

In the 128 years since Mark Pick founded his company in this southern Hungarian city, his recipe hasn't changed one whit. Through wars, economic depression, family squabbles, decades of communism and, finally, reprivatization, Pick salami has remained the same.

``The secret of our success can only be in the quality, and this traditional quality has been around for decades,'' financial director Lukacs Vamosi said.

Now, with the prospect of Hungary's entry into the 15-nation European Union on the horizon, there is new excitement as company executives envision fresh markets for their products. And the 5,000 shareholders who invested in Pick in 1992 expect the future to bring bigger returns.

Pick Szeged Salami Factory and Meat Processing is already one of Hungary's most profitable companies. Along with Tokaj wine and Herend china, Pick salami is considered one of this country's true quality products, one which can tempt finicky Western markets.

When the European Union takes in new members from Central and Eastern Europe, Pick hopes to lead an export boom that will yield new spinoff enterprises, more jobs and prosperity for Hungary.

Modest by Western standards, Pick's 2.4 billion forints, or $15.8 million, pretax profit in 1996 makes it one of the most successful ventures in a country still shaking off the shackles of communism.

The company also had a 14.6 percent increase in domestic sales last year and a 33 percent jump in exports, including the company's other meat products.

Half a million pigs give up their lives to Pick every year. Most are from around this city of 180,000 in Hungary's agricultural heartland. The finest cuts are spiced according to Mark Pick's original recipe, stuffed into salami skins and hung up to dry.

The cool air from the Tisza and the microclimate of Szeged are indispensable to the sensitive, three-month process of ripening. The product was originally called winter salami because in the days before refrigeration it could only be made in cold weather.

Half the production is exported, 80 percent of that to the EU and 8 percent to the United States, where it is sold mostly in specialty stores.

The company has been able to survive years of political turmoil.

At the turn of the century, it was run by Mark Pick's widow, then his oldest son, Jeno. World War I halted production and stocks were confiscated for the army. Work resumed in 1920.

But in 1942, Jeno Pick was forced under anti-Jewish laws to resign as head of the company, although he continued to influence it indirectly. He returned in 1947, only to be booted out again in 1948 when the communists nationalized his company.

The Pick name dissolved into the state-run Animal Trading and Meat Industrial Trust, which ran 21 Hungarian meat processing companies. But that trust was ended in 1987, and with the end of communism, Pick was privatized in 1992. Shares offered on the Budapest Stock Exchange were snapped up by thousands of eager investors, mostly German, British and American.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) Lukacs Vamosi, financial director of Pick Salami, says Hungary's membership in the European Union will let the company gain new vistas.

(2) Hungarian meat workers prepare pork for Pick winter salami.

Associated Press