First round of land auctions “successful”, says farm minister

Budapest, November 21 (MTI) – Auctions to sell state land have been “successful” and around 200 Hungarian farmers bought altogether more than 1,800 hectares of state farmland at an average of 9 hectares each, the minister of agriculture told a news conference on Saturday.

Sandor Fazekas said the sales had generated revenues of 4.8 billion forints (EUR 15.5m) for the state, higher than initial estimates.

The minister said that in Budapest and a number of counties only Hungarian citizens had purchased the land.

All auctions went off smoothly, he said, adding that a disturbance had taken place in Heves County when an LMP lawmaker had joined radical nationalist Jobbik party protesters in attempting unsuccessfully to disrupt proceedings.

Not all large and more expensive tracts of land were sold, Fazekas said, adding, however, that these would be up for auction in the future, too.

In the first four days, 353 land areas were advertised of which two were withdrawn, 155 were unsuccessful and 196 sold, he said.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters