Bad weather is expected to cut Hungary’s cereal crop — including wheat, barley, oats, rye and triticale, but not maize — by about 30pc this year, Jozsef Vancsura, chairman of the National Association of Cereal Farmers (GOSZ), said at a press conference on Thursday.
Between 20pc and 25pc of the wheat crop has already been harvested from 1.38m hectares. Average yield is expected to be 3.5 tonnes per hectare, which would bring the entire wheat crop to about 4m tonnes. The entire cereals crop is expected to reach 5m-6m tones.
The barley and rapeseed harvest is practically complete, Mr Vancsura said. Barley was planted on 200,000 hectares and yielded about 2.7 tonnes per hectare. Rapeseed was planted on 250,000 hectares and yielded an average 1.98 tonnes per hectare.
Hungary uses about 1.2m tonnes of wheat for human consumption each year. A further 2m tonnes is used for feed and the rest is exported. Ideally, the country can export 1.5m-2m tonnes of wheat a year, as well as keep about 1m tonnes in reserves, Mr Vancsura said.