Hungary will buy between 300,000 and 400,000 tonnes of wheat and barley from farmers who lack storage capacity, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday. The ministry said earlier that 3.5-4 million tonnes of grain must leave the country and up to 2.5 million tonnes of storage must be built to make way for later new crop grain.
Benedek said wheat harvesting had started in five counties of Hungary, and that yields were below the 4.6 tonnes per hectare forecast earlier but more than 4.0 tonnes.
"We are expecting a little less wheat than earlier estimated," Benedek said.
The ministry said earlier this week that the total grain crop would be 15-16 million tonnes.
"Wheat harvesting nation-wide will start in the middle of next week," Benedek said.
The EU has allowed Hungary, which had intervention grain offers of over 4 million tonnes from the 2004 crop, to transfer a total of 500,000 tonnes of grain to Spain and Portugal.