EU: Weather conditions favourable for barley plantings in Western Europe, UK and Scandinavia this year

Favourable weather conditions in Western Europe, the U.K. and Scandinavia provided for good plantings conditions and emergence of winter crops, H. M. Gauger GmbH said in their December report.

The lack of rainfall since spring of this year had dried out soils completely in East and South Germany, Western Poland, Central Europe and the Balkans. There the planting of winter grains was done under most difficult conditions. Emergence of winter grains is poor, the chance of winter kill strong. Spring barley acreage will be lower, where winter grain (wheat) plantings went well.

In the eastern and southeastern countries the size of spring grain acreage will depend on the survival of winter crops, the analysts said.

Some estimates of spring barley acres are: France 520–540,000 ha (last year 485,000), Germany 380–400,000 ha (448,000), U.K. 735,000 ha (762,000), Denmark 500–520,000 ha (713,000), Sweden 280,000 ha (338,000), Czech Rep. 200–210,000 ha (222,000), Poland 660-700,000 ha (803,000).

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .