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ECONOMIC

JPRS-EER-91-053 25 Apri! 1991

scrious the situation is. Grain cannot be exported to the Soviet Union at the enterprise level, in smali quantities; instcad, agreements are necessary at the governmcnt-to-govcrnment level. But the enterprises have been left to fcnd for themsclves.

Because the Sovict Union is technically insolvent, even the United States, Canada, France, and Australia are able to conclude grain deals with the Eastern superpowcr only if their respective government provides export guarantces. For the time being, Hungarian banks flatly refuse to extend any export credit. Our only hope, regardless of how callous this may sound, is that we might be able to gct a share of the aid shipments if the grain shortage in the Soviet Union becomes catastrophic.

According to experts, the stocks of grain in Hungary are momentarily sufficient to last until the harvest, despite the spring drought. Essentially, the area sown to grain has not declincd, and therc has been no winter damage to the grain crop so far. Thus, based on the expcrience of years past, we can expcct a grain harvest of at least 14 million metric tons. But domestic demand will be declining significantly, considcring the foreseeable development of the livestock population, and our export channels have become clogged.

According to pessimistic predictions, the foreseeable grain surplus of between 2.0 million and 2.5 million metric tons could bankrupt the largc-scale farms and result in agriculture’s complete collapse. Liquidity prob-lems are threatcning grain growers and processors alike. No one can say exactly how much it costs to grow whcat or corn, but it is already evident that the bids rcceived so far are in the $82 to $85 rangę, while the costs of fertilizer, fucl and transportation arc rising.

According to growers, all is now quiet in the villages. What the villagers fear today are the parliamcnt’s deci-sions, rather than the "green barons,” i.c., the chairmcn of the agricultural coopcratives. The villagcs’ futurę depcnds on what the parliament will decide. After the harvest, the wheat issue will become the entirc village’s concern.

The competent officials of the ministries concerned are persisting in their refusal to lift the ban on wheat cxports. The ban bccame necessary in the aftermath of the drought, to ensure a sellefs market for the growers at the time of a shortage psychosis. The mcasure fulfillcd its intendcd purpose long ago, but the Ministry of Agricul-ture and the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations want to play it safc and are waiting for estimates of the livestock population at the end of March. Only when those estimates are available will they dare to dccide how much brcad grain and feed grain the country will need, and how much can be allowcd for export.

Corporation Formed To Evade Compensation Law

91CH0486B Budapest HETI KIS UJSAG in Hungarian 15 Mar 91 p 3

(lntcrview with Deputy Karoly Javor of the Hungarian Democratic Forum by Marton Balia; place and datę not given: “The Sasad Corporation; Champions of Legal-ity?"—First paragraph is HETI KIS UJSAG introduc-tion]

[Text] The Sasad Agricultural Cooperative is being dis-cussed in the press, in the parliament as well as by the public at large, but this is not hampering the cooperative the least bit from transforming itsclf into a Corporation and thereby cleverly circumventing the Compensation Law that will be enactcd. Deputy Karoly Javor (Hungarian Democratic Forum), who has spoken out repeatedly against such tricks, was invited to attend the coopera-tive’s generał meeting that also happened to bc the corporation’s organization meeting. This is how hc describcs what took place there.

[Javor] The most infuriating thing about such transfor-mations is that their initiators present themselves as the champions of legality and brag: “Look how we are adjusting to the ncw market conditions and imple-menting the govcrnment's economic program!" True, the cloven foot is showing, but what docs that matter? Our present laws still permit such Sharp practiccs. and it is a serious omission that the National Assembly has not yet plugged the loopholcs of this typc.

[Balia] Does this mean that the ncw corporation’s for-mation cannot bc challengcd?

[Javor] No, it does not, bccause the promoters had committed a fcw mistakes. For instance. notice of the organizational meeting was not filcd with the registry court 30 days in advance, and no announccment to that effect was placed in a national newspaper. It is concciv-able that even the mayors of the surrounding villages learned about the Sasad Cooperative’s proposed trans-formation only by accident and at the very last minutę. The printed invitation I reccived w^ras mcrely to the cooperative’s customary generał meeting; the Corporation^ organization meeting was mentioned only on a sheet attached to the invitation afterwards. Which of course does not mean that the corporation’s formation also took the cooperative’s leadership by surprise. The sole purpose of the sccrecy was to leave us no time to torpedo their plan.

[Balia] Did you havc any opportunity to inform the cooperative members about how the transformation would affect them?

[Javor] That is a very interesting thing, because the agenda went as follows: First, there were the speechcs marking the end of the cooperative era, and the distri-bution of the bonuses; then information about the proposed transformation, and the proposaFs adoption by secret ballot; and only then came the debatc. I voiced my