Pannonia Bio Buying Nearly 1 mln Tonnes of Maize Locally

The company is confident that after last year's drought, the favorable weather since spring will continue, and yields, as well as crop quality will be good.

The company, which sells its products in many countries around the world, continues to focus on safety and high quality and therefore carries out continuous and rigorous quality control of raw materials at its site in Dunaföldvár.

Although last year's drought caused a drop in maize area in Hungary by almost 12% this year, thanks to the favorable weather and sufficient rainfall, farmers can be confident that the harvest will be of sufficient quantity and quality.

As for the preliminary figures, according to the latest summary of the state of spring agricultural work published in mid-May by the Agricultural Economics Institute (AKI), the planned area for sowing was 871,000 hectares, 45% of which is in the North and South Plain regions and 20% in the South Transdanubian region. The weather this year has favored the development of maize. According to a summary published by the National Meteorological Service on July 3, the amount of rainfall has been around or above optimum in most parts of the country so far in the growing season, with only the Transdanubian region lagging behind.

However, temperatures in April, May, and June have often been below the requirements of maize, so the total amount of heat is currently below optimum, but July is still ahead, which is an important period for producers, not only because of the weather.

"We are planning to launch the first big buying wave in the period when yields are estimated, to coincide with the start of flowering. Current forecasts suggest this will be from mid-July. For more than a decade, since its launch, Pannonia Bio has provided a partnership, a predictable uptake market, and thus a livelihood for hundreds of farming families in the region. Accordingly, we are counting on them again this year to be our main source of almost 1 million tonnes," says Zsolt Lengyel, Pannonia Bio's commercial director.

"Although we can't say for sure yet, maize could be one of this year's success crops on the producer side, so the farmers who sow maize have made the right decision," he adds.

The company's commodity procurement representative also said that this year, 250,000-300,000 tonnes of the crop, double last year's volume, would be needed to supply the barley processing plant, which was put into operation last year. Most of the purchases have already been made, significantly reducing the export exposure of farmers in the region, as in the case of maize.

The company expects that if the favorable weather conditions continue, there is every chance that the new maize harvest will meet preliminary expectations in terms of quantity and quality. From the end of September, Pannonia Bio is expected to start sourcing dried new produce from local producers.