EU: Late barley harvest countries fare not very well this year

Denmark has finished its harvest in the islands, but is still behind on Jutland. August rains have affected yields and qualities to some extent; the expected selection of malting barley is now estimated at 1.1 to 1.2 mln tonnes, leaving an export surplus of less than a mln tonnes, H. M. Gauger GmbH reported earlier in September.

Parts of South Sweden report a surprising high protein problem. Rainy Central Sweden and Finland cannot make much progress with their barley harvests, Finland expects a major quantity and quality problem.

The Polish harvest is almost done, the acreage of malting barley varieties had been extremely low, and the weather has not helped during vegetation and harvest. The country must import approximately 150 -200 thousand tonnes of malting barley, the analysts said.

Czech malting barley supplies will be tight, exporters report mostly correct quality parameters, but larger quantities of rain-affected mouldy grains.

Austria and Slovakia report poor crops and the need of imports.

To sum it up, the late harvest EU countries have fared badly this year, putting a burden on the EU S&D balance, the analysts report.

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