Heavy rains threaten Hungary's sugar crop

Heavy rains and low temperatures over the past week may threaten Hungary's chances of recording one of its best sugar crops in decades, producers said. "The rain has been good, the crop needed the water, but there's been so much we're struggling with drainage problems and standing water, which is bound to hurt quality," Laszlo Madarasz, chief executive of Eastern Sugar Rt., told Reuters.
Rain over the past week exceeded 100 millimetres in much of the country, which is well up on the 58 millimetre monthly average for Hungary in August. But a quick return to good weather could still save the crop, analysts said.
"In just the first week of August, rain exceeded the monthly average in 80 percent of the country," Vilmos Vadasz, an agricultural analyst at the National Meteorological Service, said.
Matra Cukor, a subsidiary of German sugar giant Nordzucker and one of the country's top producers, was especially hard hit.
"We've had up to 120-130 millimetres of rain in just a few days that flooded fields and threatens to suffocate the crop," said Laszlo Kiss, Matra Cukor's agricultural director.
"The real problem is that it's still raining. It's cold, nights are especially cool and that will not do anything good for quality," Kiss added.
Rain was falling in much of Hungary on Monday and intermittent rain was expected for most of the week, with warm and sunny weather not expected until next week.
However, if clear days returned next week, the overall sugar crop might still producer high yields.
"So far, this is one of the top three years out of the past 27 years I spent in the industry," Zoltan Bracz, an analyst at Magyar Cukor, said.
"The rain prevented leaves from drying off, which could certainly improve quality since growing new leaves would consume much of the plants' potential," Bracz said.
Despite the recent weather, producers said yields were still expected to be higher than in 2004.
Magyar Cukor, a unit of Austria's Agrana, sees its crop yield rising to 50 tonnes per hectare from last year's 46 tonnes, while Eastern Sugar expects yield closer to 60 tonnes.
Matra Cukor declined to give estimates but said its plans were for 50 tonnes per hectare and conditions indicated yields would be higher, but probably below last year's 57.9 tonnes.