Hungary's wheat harvest is nearly complete, with yields averaging 4.1 tonnes per hectare but varying widely due to poor results in flood-hit regions, the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday. The yield on the 1.082 million hectares sown is down from 4.5 tonnes last year and slightly below the ministry's projection last week for 4.2 tonnes.
Farmers' group MAGOSZ put the crop at 4.4 million tonnes with 98 percent of the area harvested, down from over 5 million tonnes last year, state news agency MTI reported.
Current high prices meant farmers would offer little wheat for intervention, MTI quoted Agriculture Ministry State Secretary Zoltan Gogos as saying. Gogos reiterated the ministry's forecast for a maize crop of 8 million tonnes, assuming sufficient rainfall in coming weeks.