January 17, 2005

Hungary's 2004 Grain Crop Sharply Higher

Hungary gathered a bumper 2004 grain crop totaling 16.7 million metric tons, up 90.5% from 2003 levels, the Central Statistics Office, KSH, said Friday.

The increase in the grain crop was due to good weather conditions from sowing to harvesting.

Wheat yielded a total crop of 6 million tons, over double 2003 levels. The sowing area was up 5.3% at 1.17 million hectares. The average yield per hectare was 5.13 tons, up sharply from 2.64 tons a year earlier.

The KSH provided the following breakdown for the 2004 grain crop, with the first column indicating crop size in metric tons and the second showing the percentage change on a year earlier. The third column shows the average yield of each crop in kilogram per hectare and the fourth column shows the percentage change from a year earlier. All data is preliminary.

Crop                    Crop     Change  Yield per  Change

                             in tons    %        hectare     %

Total Grains           16.71M   +90.5     na          na.

 of which:

 Wheat                    6.02M     +104.7   5,130    +94.3

 Corn                      8.32M     +83.5     7,000    +77.2

Sugar beet              3.13M     +72.7    50,970    +45.1

Sunflower                1.20M     +20.8    2,500     +31.6

Rape seed             287,000    +165.7   2,750     +84.6

Potatoes                767,000    +31.8    24,830    +58.6