In more updated news of the doom and gloom surrounding this year’s grape harvest, bad weather is expected to reduce the crop in Hungary’s famous Tokaj wine region by 30% to 25 million kilograms, according to Istvan Kiss, who heads state-owned wine maker Tokaj Kereskedőház, as an MTI report at vg.hu stated. Growers are, however, currently receiving approximately Ft 80 per kilogram for Muscat grapes, or about 25% more than they did last year, Kiss added. Tokaj Kereskedőház will buy about 9 million kilograms of grapes this year, he continued. The harvest for the graps from which Tokaj wine is traditionally made will not be picked until October 10 at the earliest, however, pushing back plans for a late September harvest as originally reported. Tokaj Kereskedőház’s revenue fell 10% to Ft 3.2 billion (€11 million) in 2009 and domestic sales dropped 15%, but on the other hand exports rose 8%, which is perhaps the one bit of good news for them in this otherwise dreary year.
