Australia: Malting barley prices higher amidst dryness concerns

With global wheat prices strengthening amidst the dryness concerns in key regions, Australian malting barley prices are higher. For the feed barley, prices are unchanged as the wet conditions are improving pasture grass for cattle and leaves the domestic feed complex reasonably covered for the moment, RMI Analytics said in their latest report.

The mixed variety (MV) spec barley price sits in between Malt1 and Feed quality, at approximately USD270/tonne, FOB Geelong.

This widening of the malting barley premium is taking place at the same time as the weak malt demand experienced in South-East Asia during 2023 is still having a lingering impact on malting capacity utilization. The recent brewer financial reports indicated some potential recover in the region but in reality sales are still well off from 2022 levels. For domestic malt demand, volumes remain steady but export volumes are the key for the Australian malting industry.

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