June 20, 2007

Hungary's 2007 wheat crop seen down but exports to EU up

Hungarian farmers plan to export 1.4 million tonnes of wheat this year, the most in the last five years, state news agency MTI quoted Laszlo Szabo, general manager of crop storage company Hungaria Holding Zrt as saying Tuesday (Jun 19).

Hungary's wheat crop, affected by the April to May dry spell, was only saved by last-minute rains. The harvest has already begun across the country and Szabo estimates the 2007 crop to be 4 million tonnes.

That's down from Hungary's wheat crop of 4.4 million tonnes in 2006, central statistic office data show.

With domestic demand around 2.5 million tonnes, Hungary will export most of its surplus, with Italy, Greece and Romania the largest potential markets, said Szabo. These countries' wheat has been more drastically affected by drought.

However, Hungarian wheat exports to countries outside the European Union, such as India and Pakistan won't become norm and last year's exports there were an exception, Szabo said.

While it's too early to predict a definite outcome of this year's corn harvest, with optimal rainfall farmers can expect a medium-sized crop at best, representatives from the national grain producers committee, or GOV, said.

Hungary had a huge corn crop last year, totalling 8.4 million tonnes, according to statistics office data.

Farmers have already begun harvesting this year's autumn barley crop, with the highest yield amounting to 4.2 tonnes a hectare.