Argentina: Barley crop forecast remains at 5.1 mln tonnes

Persistent heavy rainfall continues to affect major barley-producing regions in South America, increasing the pressure on agronomic practices to control disease, RMI Analytics said in their early November report.

Monitoring crop development will be essential if the rains persist; however, current photos from Argentina reveal a vibrant and healthy crop. Some minor frost has been reported as temperature fall, but RMI’s crop’25 forecast for Argentina remains at 5.1 mln tonnes.

The experts’ export volumes forecast for crop’24 have increased due to export declarations (1.25 mln tonnes of malting and 2.25 mln tonnes of feed barley). While tonnage declared remains very low compared to last year, the need to export nearly the same in crop’25 is essential. Of note, in late crop’24, there was demand for malting barley late season shipment boosting export declarations. This may be supportive for crop’25 but weaker beer volumes in Brazil are very concerning.