Australia: ABB Grain reduced malt pool price slightly

ABB Grain Ltd announced on December 14 it has reviewed its gross barley pool indicators for 2005/2006 and has reduced its malting barley estimate by A$2/tonne, to A$193/tonne* for South Australia and eastern states. The feed barley estimate remains unchanged at A$165/t.

The indicator prices for Victorian graingrowers who contracted to the No.1 pool, which closed on October 31, are A$198/t for malting barley and A$170/t for feed.

ABB’s General Manager Marketing, Nigel Officer, said the minor adjustment was made in response to the Chinese market for malting barley.

“Immediate demand has been covered and, following recent buying interest from China, the market has quietened,” he said. “The extent to which malting barley buyers have covered their forward requirements is not as great as with feed barley buyers and therefore slightly more uncertainty surrounds estimates for malting barley.”

Mr Officer said the longer term prospects for the Chinese market still looked promising with that country having only covered around 30% of its needs for the year.

*A further $5/tonne premium also applies for Baudin and Sloop malting varieties although this season is the last in which the premium will apply.

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