The season had a rough start, but domestic sweet corn is still at the top of Europe

By: Trademagazin Date: 2022. 08. 11. 09:10

Most sweet corn in Europe is grown in Hungary. In order to preserve the competitiveness of the segment, the size of the irrigated areas and the proportion of varieties resistant to the MDMV virus should be increased in the short term, it was said at Syngenta’s professional event in Hajdúszoboszló.

Róbert Hajdú, the manager of Syngenta’s large-seeded vegetables, said: this year, the farmers planted sweet corn on an area similar to last year, about 30-33 thousand hectares, thus our country remains the largest producer of sweet corn in Europe, ahead of France.

“This season, the extreme drought has had a severe impact on the entire horticulture industry, including non-irrigated sweet corn production. In the region, more than a third of the early unirrigated stands could not be harvested, and the remaining areas are often characterized by an extremely low average yield of 2-7 tons per hectare. This is a serious loss for both farmers and processors. The average yields of the irrigated areas will also reach an average level of 16-18 tons/hectare, but in the current weather conditions this means successful farming. Drastically rising input material and energy prices cause serious challenges for both producers and processors. It can already be seen that the sector’s profitability is somewhat reduced as a result. However, the demand for sweet corn is constantly increasing. Following this, several processing plants in Hungary have started new investments and capacity expansion in recent years”

– introduced Róbert Hajdú.

Syngenta