Hungary's 2004 European Union accession treaty barred land purchases by foreigners until 2011 in an effort to prevent wealthy European investors from snapping up large chunks of arable land in the new member state.
Similar transition clauses were negotiated by other ex-communist newcomers such as Poland and the Czech Republic.
Hungary's new agriculture minister, Sandor Fazekas, told Reuters that Hungary had an option to extend the moratorium by three years beyond 2011, subject to the blessing of EU member states.
"I do not think foreign investors will get arable land in Hungary," Fazekas said in an interview on Thursday.
"Preliminary talks have begun, we are seeking supporters to have the moratorium extended. The French [agriculture] minister, for example, has recently visited Hungary and supports us in this issue," he added.
Fazekas also said Hungary's 2010 wheat crop was seen at 4.53 million tonnes - based on an 18 June estimate - versus 4.4 million last year, but the final amount would depend on weather conditions during the harvest.
"That is a bit more than last year but it [this figure] needs to be treated carefully, because in many places you cannot step on the fields to harvest it," he said, referring to heavy rains and floods, which soaked some planting areas.
High water levels also affected the development of maize, sown on 1.127 million hectares this year, slightly below 2009 levels, but Fazekas said it was too early to assess the amount of damage to that crop.
New land law, EU budget
Fazekas added that Hungary's centre-right Fidesz government, which took power after April elections, would amend legislation to give the state a priority right to purchase land, which he said was aimed at eradicating speculative deals.
"Naturally the state does not want to buy up every plot," Fazekas said. "In those cases when farmers buy it [...] who want to grow crops on it, then the state will obviously not intervene."
He also said Hungary wanted to preserve the level of direct agricultural subsidies in the EU budget after the bloc's planned reform of its 50 billion euro ($67.1 billion) per year Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2013.
"It is very important to defend the level of direct agricultural subsidies and that there be as much money as possible set aside for rural development," Fazekas said.
"Within the EU budget, we would like to preserve the level of agricultural subsidies."
Fazekas said Hungary has already held informal, preliminary consultations with farm ministers of main agricultural producers in the 27-member bloc.
"Countries interested in agriculture - we have talked to about 16 to 18 countries about this so far - they share our opinion on this," Fazekas said, mentioning Spain, Ireland and new East European EU members in particular.
"We have also talked to the Germans," he said. "They are somewhere in the middle of the road on this. They are open in this respect; perhaps that is the most what we can say."
Hungary will hold the EU's rotating presidency in the first half of 2011.
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
