World: Feed barley supplies look safe but malting barley stock under threat

World supplies of feed barley look safe. Larger demand in China, Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean (Turkey) is balanced by good crop prospects in Argentina and Australia, H. M. Gauger GmbH said in their October report.

Malting barley, on the other hand, is threatened by a real shortfall in North America and possibly even Europe. The imbalance is caused by droughts in North America and Europe, but partly also by politics.

As Australia is excluded from supplies to China, and Canada recorded a bad crop failure, the origin-restrictive China depends on supplies from France and Argentina. Ukraine cannot offer barley of malting quality. As a consequence, EU markets cannot obtain their usual quantities of French barley, and South American brewers purchase less Argentinean barley. EU shipments to North and Central America deplete EU stocks. Australia is gaining footholds in Latin America, and may even help to fill the demand in North America and Europe.

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 .